The Islander
by infiniteviking
Summary: Novel format. The Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria arrive on the doomed planet Efes in the middle of a secret government takeover. History has been changed. Can they change it back? COMPLETE!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer:

Much as I hate to admit it... the Doctor, the TARDIS, and related matter belong to the BBC. This story and its setting, however, belong to me.

-

**The Islander**

by infiniteviking

**Prologue**

Space, true empty space, is a great deal emptier than most people think. Even in the latter centuries and among the most thoroughly populated sectors, interstellar ships are few and far between, and the vast distances between stars are home to little more than dust clouds, radiation waves, scattered electron fields, solar winds and the occasional vagrant black hole.

Take _this_ little area for example: the heart of the Great Void between Altair and Deneb.

A small cloud of Dark Matter drifts over the emptiness in what is no doubt the most exciting event that has occurred here for over two thousand years. Light-years away, the great star Deneb is dying, an enormous red giant, producing unbelievable amounts of energy, building up to a supernova. Light-years away in the opposite direction, white-hot Altair shines impassively.

Faster than light or time, silent and insubstantial as a ghost, barely even in the same dimension, the shadow of a tall blue box with a blinking light on top flashes through the cloud and is gone. The Dark Matter swirls slightly, eddies a bit and settles back to the serious business of random drifting.

Time continues.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

"We're passing over the Emperor's palace now, sir."

Number Seven, a short, brown-haired woman in the plain dark jumpsuit of the Phestan Joint Intelligence, swung around in her chair and regarded Ensign Eighty-Eight with amusement. "What do you want me to do, stand up and salute?"

Eighty-Eight blinked, unable to formulate any kind of answer that could be considered both prudent and correct. To him, at least, the seat of the high kings of Vanussia was still an object of veneration; and this was as it should be. Seven smiled and shook her head slowly. "We go over the palace six times a day," she said. "It gets repetitive after a while, and we must also consider Divisions K and D."

"The... other-siders," said Eighty-Eight, looking nervously back down at his board. Seven stared calmly at the scanner, where Eighty-Eight had put a visual of the Palace from high overhead. "You say the name, Ensign. Krakods. You'll get used to it."

"Yes sir," said Eighty-Eight and nodded, trying to believe it. It was a common enough syndrome; the continents of Vanussia and Krakor were situated on opposite sides of the planet Efes, and each side hated the other, without quite knowing why. Working completely behind the scenes, the Joint Intelligence – JI for short – had gotten the Krakod Thane and the previous Emperor of Vanussia talking long enough to appoint ambassadors, who had argued the Tropospheric Settlement into existance before the talks had collapsed into useless squabbling and the creative exchange of insults.

Troposphera Settlement: the Chip, it was called, because from the outside it looked like nothing more than a giant computer chip moving in a perpetual loop around the planet. Held aloft by massive fusion engines and antigravity modules, the Chip sailed high enough to clear the highest of the Phestan mountains, but low enough to allow the standard hovercraft – now perfected, the preferred mode of transport on both continents – to approach without closing its top, if passengers didn't mind the icy winds at that altitude. (Not that civilian hovercrafts were ever allowed near the settlement.) In its paneled conference rooms and enclosed gardens, ambassadors, ambassadors' aides, diplomats, diplomats' aides, and various officials, bureaucrats, and their underlings gathered to discuss various semiimportant matters in a form of Phestan legalese that was almost incomprehensible to the layman.

Underneath it all, confined to a world of maintenance tunnels and access shafts and unauthorized control centers, the JI watched and quietly manipulated the proceedings. Combining Vanussian troops with Krakod troops was unheard of, but they did it. Recording meetings on the Chip was completely illegal, but they did it. They had armed the station for its own defense, even though all treaties insisted that the colony possess no offensive capabilities. They worked outside the law so that laws could be maintained.

In the room from which the great hidden guns were controlled, Seven watched Eighty-Eight perform a final sensor sweep. He was terribly new to all this, but he would learn. Seven waited for a moment for the results to came through, and then said, "Final status report?"

"All clear, sir," said Eighty-Eight. "End of shift, switching over to automatic." His eyes flicked to the door and his fingers twitched on the armrest.

Seven glanced at the chrono. Five, yes. Four, yes. Three, two, and a clatter in the corridor outside. One, and the door slid open. Someone stomped to attention, and Eighty-Eight's face paled and tightened. Seven slowly swivelled her chair around.

Forty-Two clicked his heels sharply and delivered an exaggerated salute. His official hat was tilted almost over his eyes and he was standing so stiffly he was in danger of falling over backwards. "As-of-oh-three-hundred-fifty-nine-hours-you-are-relieved-_sah_!" he informed Eighty-Eight, rapping out each word like a pistol shot.

Seven tried to look stern. The Krakods often acted up – on that continent a good sense of humor was considered a major cultural asset – but Forty-Two, even on Krakor, would have been a special case. "Stand up straight, mister!" barked Seven. Forty-Two obediently tried to stand up straighter, and fell back out the door, which closed politely in his wake. Seven barely had time to meet Eighty-Eight's horrified glare with a reassuring nod before the door opened again and Forty-Two stumbled in, straightening his hat. He grinned affably at Eighty-Eight. The ensign ignored him completely, saluted Seven, and marched off.

Forty-Two flopped into his chair and flipped a few switches. He took a deep breath and bellowed, "Four o'clock and all's well!" at the top of his voice. The room rang and the corner of Seven's mouth flickered upwards as she imagined Eighty-Eight flinching in the corridor. Nonetheless, she said easily, "I'd appreciate a little lower decible level, Krakod."

"Right, other-sider," said Forty-Two. That was another thing Eighty-Eight would have to get used to: to the Krakods, Vanussians were _other-siders_.

"It's not as if the delegates will ever hear," continued Forty-Two. "I was just at Archives. They're screaming so loud I'd be surprised if they could even hear themselves. I have a running bet with One-Oh-One that they're all stone deaf."

"What was all that I heard about half the Vanussians walking out if the Krakods don't meet all their demands by Dragon Day?"

"Oh, that was yesterday. Now they're saying they'll walk out if the Krakods don't meet all their demands by the day _after_ Dragon Day..." Suddenly Forty-Two straightened. His pat manner fell away from him completely, and he started adjusting dials on the scanner. "I've got a blip, Seven."

-

The planetary crust deep under Vanussia's most majestic mountain range was honeycombed with deep ancient tunnels carved by hand and primitive instruments long before any of the race's recorded history, winding, complicated, dry and carpeted with the dust of years beyond count. Even as Eighty-Eight was checking his scanners for the last time, two khakied soldiers were marching a huge copper box along one of those echoing corridors. The shorter soldier was a lieutenant named Jenr Auburning, a Krakod who thought he was on special maneuvers. The tall one was his superior, Commander Risan Khe Materahk. Auburning walked uncertainly, as though he didn't quite know why he was there, glancing into shadows and grateful for the harsh fluorescent lights that were strung along the ceiling at somewhat decent intervals. Khe walked automatically, comfortable in the silence of the labyrinth.

Auburning broke the silence. "Look, you've really got to tell me what's in the box. Classified is all very well, but I'm the transmat tech. I have to know what's inside it."

Khe walked on, preserving his end of the silence.

"I don't understand what all this mystery is for," said Auburning. "It's practically Vanussian. Look, this isn't Tellisn's idea, is it?"

Khe's voice did not echo. How did he _do_ that? "The orders were signed by General Sode himself."

"I bet Tellisn's behind this." Silence. "The whole thing stinks of Imperial tactics." Silence. Auburning fumed. But he kept walking.

They rounded a corner and came to a door, split down the middle and half forced open through the dust caking its tracks. They had done that themselves last time they had visited this room. This time they had to force it open even more, to admit the box.

While Khe checked the seals on the box, Auburning crawled halfway under the triangular platform in the back of the room. "My repairs are holding for now," he grumbled. "I've done all I can with the information I have, but now you'll have to tell me what's in the box or the antigravs will mess up the readings."

Khe regarded the triangular platform. "Does the transmat require testing?"

"It shouldn't. It'll only work once or twice anyway; the power requirements for this distance are staggering. No, it's as ready as it'll ever be... now it just needs to be told what it's supposed to do."

"I will program it," said Khe.

"Wait a minute. Do you know anything about mass conversion mechanics? Get away from there, you'll mess it all up–" But Khe was already at the control panel, his fingers moving over the keys almost too fast for the lieutenant to see. Then he stepped back and said, "You will complete the transport."

Auburning stared at the screen. "What did you do?"

"Complete the transport."

"What coordinates?"

Khe told him.

-

"I've got a blip, Seven."

"That's what we're here for. What is it?"

"I can't tell. It's... moving too fast... accelerating... Seven, it's up, straight up, and it's falling straight down, straight at us!"

"_What_? Where did it come from?"

"I don't know! It's as if it just materialized! If this isn't the extreme emergency you're always telling me about–"

"It is. Targeting... Forty-Two, I can't get a lock. Where did it come from?"

"Nowhere. Look, try three six one two mark nineteen."

"Steady. Lock. _Fire_!"

They fired.

They missed.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

"Doctor..."

The control room of the incredible time-space ship called the TARDIS was large and cheerfully lit, with a pattern of circular indentations in the walls, broken by computer banks and flashing lights. A large hexagonal control console occupied the center of the floor. One panel had been removed from the base and placed against the wall just under the main materialization lever, and varicolored wires trailed from there to an open roundel across the room. A middle-aged man in a frayed black coat and baggy checked trousers had his head and both arms buried up to the shoulders in the console base. From time to time there was a spark.

"Doctor..." Victoria's voice was petulant.

A few unintelligible but definitely negative noises worked their way up through the tangled wires.

Victoria Waterfield was young and ingenuous, with dark hair and blue eyes, and had been snatched out of her peaceful nineteenth-century England by an invasion of evil Daleks. The Doctor had managed to destroy the Dalek army, but Victoria's father had been killed, and his dying request had been for the Doctor to look after her. She was now stamping her foot.

"Oh, Doctor!"

This time a head emerged from the console. The Doctor's black hair was standing up in large tufts. His deeply lined face was streaked with some dark substance and there were ribbons of smoke spiraling about him. He also had a fat yellow pencil between his teeth. Looking over his shoulder at the girl he said some very patient and emphatic gibberish through the pencil and dove back into his repairs.

Victoria groaned. "Will you please come _out_ of there, Doctor? I was talking to you!" The only response was a loud crackle of electricity and the smell of ozone. Victoria shook her head in frustration.

"What's the matter then, Victoria?" It was Jamie McCrimmon, a young Scottish piper who had met the Doctor during the Second Jacobite Rebellion in 1746. Not knowing what he was letting himself in for, Jamie had followed the Doctor through the doors of a small, unassuming police box, and found himself catapulted through space and time and into situations he had never imagined.

"Oh, it's the Doctor," said Victoria sadly. "He's trying to fix the TARDIS again and he won't even talk to me."

Jamie was about to reply when the lights suddenly dimmed. There was a sound like power building up and the control room swayed slightly, sending Jamie staggering into a wall and Victoria careening into him. They both grabbed the hatstand for balance: despite all logic and anything that had ever befallen the TARDIS, the hatstand had always stayed upright. "Doctor!" shouted Jamie. "What're you doin'?"

There was an inarticulate reply. Then the room brightened slowly and an object like a very large spark plug was tossed out of the console, bounced once, rolled along the floor with an odd metallic clatter and came to rest in a corner.

At this point the Doctor emerged from the opening, set his pencil on the edge of the console – over which it promptly rolled, bounced on the floor, and rattled away out of sight – and brushed off his hands. "There, that should do it," he said brightly and with immense satisfaction, stuffing most of the exposed wiring and circuitry into the hole in the wall and moving over to the console panel. "Here, Jamie, help me with this, will you?" Jamie hurried over to the other side of the heavy panel and between them they manhandled it back to the console. It fitted into place with a pleasant click.

"What were ye doin' in there, Doctor?" panted Jamie as the Doctor sealed up the hole in the wall.

"Making some changes, I hope," said the Doctor mysteriously. "You'll find out, if it works."

"Aye, like the last time," said Jamie under his breath.

"Now, now, Jamie..." The Doctor was well used to Jamie's eternal grumbling about the TARDIS's erratic citcuitry. The machine had been in for repairs when the Doctor had acquired it, and, although he hated to admit it, he still didn't have complete control over some of its functions – steering, for example.

He fiddled with some levers, and then pushed a button. The familiar wheezing sound of materialization filled the control room.

"Doctor, why are we landing?" said Victoria.

"To see if it works," said the Doctor, completely absorbed with his dials and readouts. His companions looked at each other resignedly, and then Victoria pointed and said, "Something's wrong with the viewscreen!"

The Doctor looked. Indeed, the usual static on the main viewscreen was even worse. Nothing could be identified. "Oh, don't worry about that. I thought that might happen. Anyhow, it's easily fixed... I think." He went around to the other side of the console to look at the environmental readouts. His brow furrowed. "This is strange. Extreme radiation on the high end of the spectrum."

"Oh, aye. What does that mean?"

"It means we're on a dead planet, Jamie. No life could survive in such an environment."

"Well, shouldn't we go somewhere else then?" said Victoria. "What's the use of landing on a dead planet?"

"It doesn't matter," said the Doctor. "We just have to go outside for a minute to see if my experiment worked. Get out the space suits, will you, Jamie?" As Jamie opened the large wooden chest where the lead-coated pressure suits were kept, the Doctor frowned, staring down at the console. "You know, I can't help thinking there's something awfully familiar about this system."

-

A blast of warm air riddled with reddish particles hit the travelers as the doors slid open. Behind them, the steady noise of the TARDIS's atmospheric generators grew into a loud whine, rejecting the foreign matter until the Doctor had managed to close and lock the doors. They had landed in a small valley. Beneath their boots the ground was cracked and brittle, mostly fine sand and stones fused together around a few petrified trees, running into glassy, hot craters and fumaroles that steamed sporadically.

The Doctor took a few steps backwards and examined the TARDIS critically. He walked around it and rubbed at the battered blue paint on its sides. Meanwhile, Jamie and Victoria were looking around at the stillness of the battered landscape. Jamie picked up a small stone and tossed it into a nearby bubbling pool. It hissed and spouted a small stream of liquid.

"What a horrible place," said Victoria, sounding tinny over the radio link. Jamie nodded in agreement. "Aye. The Doctor was right, there can't be anything left alive here." He looked around for another stone to throw. Something gleamed near one of the petrified trees. "Look at this, Victoria – I think it's metal."

The Doctor came up behind them. "What have you got there, Jamie?"

Jamie handed him the object. It was a rough oval of hard metal, half melted, warped and discolored. The Doctor turned it over and over in his hands. "Very interesting indeed," he said. "Part of a metal plate, I think. This must have been an inhabited world before the disaster. Just in their space age, it looks like."

"You can tell that from just a little piece of metal?" said Victoria.

"Oh, yes," said the Doctor. "You can tell a lot from a piece of metal. Here, feel how light it is?"

She took it. "Yes, I see. But shouldn't it be a lot heavier?"

"Not in this case. This sort of alloy is made by mixing molten metal – refined iron, in this case – with oxygen, or some other gas. The resulting metal is stronger and lighter at the same time. Such an operation can only be performed in microgravity, otherwise the lighter element would all go to the top and the heavier one would go to the bottom."

"What happened to the people then?" said Jamie. "If they were attacked, why didn't they just go off into space?"

"Well, if the attack came from space that wouldn't do very much good, would it?" said the Doctor, heading off toward the top of a craggy ridge. His companions trailed behind.

The ridge overlooked a long tortured plain that might have been a lakebed at some point in time, and beyond that was a brighter sunset than Victoria had ever seen. The far horizon seemed almost molten. Three small moons hung overhead; a larger one, a little more to the west, had an ugly dark gash across the light side, with deep red seething in its heart. It looked far too close to the planet. In the distance, on a tall hill, the skyline was broken by what might have been the remains of a city.

The Doctor took a step towards the burning horizon, his eyes fixed on the city. "Now I remember why those readings looked so familiar. This is the planet Efes in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, just outside our own galaxy."

"What happened here?" asked Jamie.

"I don't know," said the Doctor sadly. He hated destruction of any type, and that view certainly qualified as something extremely bad. "That new crater on the moon there: it looks like it was caused by a nuclear missile launched from the planet's surface, but that shouldn't have happened. Efes was a lovely place the last time I visited it, and that was over fifty years from now. This must be an alternate timeline."

Victoria murmured, "I don't think I like alternate timelines."

The travelers watched in silence as the sun dipped below the horizon. Distant fires burned. A cool wind whipped over the ridge, foretelling decades of nuclear winter to come. Finally, the Doctor turned back toward the valley. "Well. It's time we were leaving."

"But what about your experiment?" asked Jamie.

"Oh, that." The Doctor looked down at the familiar blue shape of the TARDIS, completely out of place in the devastated valley. "I don't think it worked. Follow me, everyone." The three clambered back down the ridge and filed into the TARDIS, which noisily vanished.

-

Don't worry, folks – this is _not_ the end..….


	4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three 

The Doctor had set coordinates for the Pleiades area, enthusiastically describing the bright blue clouds caused by the formation of the new stars. Jamie was skeptical about the Doctor's explanation of the life cycle of a star, and this led to a discussion that spanned a three-hour game of Aggravation, four rounds of Chinese checkers, and supper. Nobody mentioned the devastated planet they had just left.

Time passed slowly. The TARDIS was in transit for over four days. To keep her mind off things Victoria decided to try and map out the vast interior of the TARDIS. Her task was complicated by the fact that the spatial control was by no means stable, and doors deep inside would sometimes lead to a different room every time she went through them; but there was something new and interesting around every corner, and she got the idea that she could explore for the rest of her life and still not see everything. She and Jamie had a good laugh over a large room that was completely bare but for an antique cuckoo clock loudly ticking away on the far wall. The Doctor, when questioned, called it the Auxiliary Backup Time Room, and promised to show her some old maps made by previous companions, if she ever managed to locate the room where he kept his library.

It took him three days to track down the fault his repairs had effected in the viewscreen. One would have thought that it would revert to normal after the 'improvements' had been undone, but nothing involving the Doctor was ever that simple.On the fourth day Victoria wandered into the console room with a historical novel she'd found in her quarters and caught the Doctor fiddling with the controls, looking worried. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"We're still outside the galaxy proper," he said. "I don't know where we're headed, but it's not the Pleiades cluster." He picked a tattered book up off the console and leafed through it. The TARDIS repair manual was a very unassuming book, small and simply bound, but Victoria knew that there probably wasn't a more advanced technical book in the universe.

She peered over the Doctor's shoulder. The page he was looking at was covered in very tiny script and diagrams of one of the readouts on the console. The Doctor handed the book to Victoria and said, "Here, do you see the knob on that end of the console? There's another knob on the other side. When I say, we'll both twist our knobs to the right."

Victoria put her other book down, went over to the indicated knob and gripped it tightly. "What's it going to do?"

"The power should spike straight up, unless we run into an electron field, in which case we might be forced to land," said the Doctor. "But the odds against that are almost astronomical, and in almost any case it's perfectly safe. All right, ready? Turn!"

They both turned their knobs at the same time. For a moment all sound ceased, as if time were holding its breath. Then there was a metallic shriek, and a howling sound, and the control room seemed to spin wildly around the console. Jamie stumbled in. "Oh, not again!" he yelled. "Doctor–"

"We must've hit an electron field," shouted the Doctor. "Hold tight, everyone!" Above the howling the wheezing sound started. There was a jolt, and then the scanner came on by itself. A whining static added to the cacophony. The Doctor threw some switches and thumped the console. The noise died away, and the picture cleared.

"Now that's more like it," said Jamie.

"Oh, it's so pretty!" exclaimed Victoria, even though the small viewscreen only showed a little patch of blue sky and grass and a few trees. After their last stop, almost anything would be spectacular. "Where are we, Doctor?"

The Doctor looked.

"Oh," he said slowly. "We're on Efes."

"But Efes was destroyed! ...Wasn't it?"

"Not quite yet, I think. Look here." He pointed at the indicator that his granddaughter Susan (now married on Earth) had nicknamed the yearometer. "It's almost three days before the last time we came here. What a coincidence!" His eyes glinted with mischief. "Shall we go exploring?"

"But the planet's going to be destroyed in less than three days! What can we do?" Victoria's eyes flickered to the piece of warped metal that had been leaning against the leather armchair since last planetfall, a silent witness to an undesirable future.

The Doctor thought for a moment, and then pointed to the pastoral scene on the viewscreen. "That's the Efes I remember, not the wasteland we saw next week. Maybe we can stop the disaster. It can't hurt to try." Again he gestured to the door. "Shall we?"

-

The first thing Victoria noticed was the sweet odor of many flowering plants. The flowers were tiny, in sprays of white, blue and indigo-purple, scattered over a small field and under several trees: tall, stately things with bluish-green foliage and reddish-brown bark. The native flora ranged from these trees -- the tallest to be seen at over sixty feet -- to delicate moss on the large boulders ranged round the small hollow where the TARDIS had landed. The whole place looked like a carefully tended garden, and it grieved Victoria to think of the ruin that she had seen four days ago.

The Doctor had wandered off into the tall grass, twiddling on his recorder.

"Look at this, now," called Jamie, pointing at the ground on the other side of a large rock. There was a wide neat path, almost a road, paved with translucent, bluish-clouded stones and pebbles. It meandered around the stately boulders and through the meadow.

"I wonder where this leads?" Victoria said. But Jamie's eyes had followed the path up the side of the valley behind the TARDIS. "Hey, Victoria! Look there!"

The huge pointed domes of a Turkish-style palace loomed above the stand of trees on the top of the hill. "It's a castle," said Victoria wonderingly.

"Aye," agreed Jamie. "We'd better find the Doctor. Doctor!"

Victoria looked around for the Doctor, certain that he had gone off down the path and they would have to follow him, but he didn't seem to have noticed it at all. He was in a grove of trees some way up the hill, playing _We Do Nothing All Day Long_ over and over again.

Just as she spotted him the music cut out and he stooped down to look at something hidden in the tall grass at the base of one of the trees. He blew a short questioning noise on the recorder, then straightened and called, "Victoria, Jamie, come and take a look at this!"

They hurried up the hill, Jamie taking the lead. "Look at these leaves," said the Doctor, indicating a bed of crumpled leaves under the tree.

"So what's so unusual about that?" asked Jamie. "Look, Doctor, there's this big castle there–"

"Oh, that's just the Emperor's palace," said the Doctor absently. "But this... this is the place where we found that piece of metal three days from now." He began tapping the ground where the leaves were thickest, and brushed some away. A bluish metal gleamed dully between two gnarled roots. "It's hiding something, see?"

"Yes, but what is it?" said Jamie.

"I think we're about to find out." Clearing the leaves away, they revealed a discolored metal triangle set into the soft loam, its vertex almost hidden under the tree's roots.

"It's like a trap door," said Jamie. "Hey, could that be what it is? A tunnel into the castle?"

"Oh, no, I shouldn't think so," said the Doctor, putting his recorder into his pocket and circling the thing. "What would they do with the leaves, eh? They would all fall through every time it was used." He rapped the metal sharply. "It isn't hollow either," he mused. "But in that case, there should be a control panel right about... wait a minute." Abruptly he turned to the tree, studied it critically and began to climb.

"Hey!" cried Jamie belatedly as the Doctor's boot heels disappeared into the dense foliage. "What are you doing? Doctor!" He and Victoria circled the tree and found a spot where they could see between the waving branches.

"Ha! See this?" cried the Doctor, clinging precariously to a limb. He had opened a small door in the bark, about the width of Jamie's spread hand. There was a sort of control panel set into the trunk itself, complete with flashing lights in several colors. The Doctor seemed to be poking at something on the panel with a twig. "It's just as I thought. This... whateveritis up here obviously controls that whateveritis down there."

"Careful ye don't set somethin' off!" called Jamie worriedly, remembering other times the Doctor had monkeyed around with alien technology.

The Doctor's voice filtered down through the leaves: "Don't worry, Jamie, I know what I'm doing... Ow!" A blue spark had arced out of the panel, and he jerked his hand back and shook it vigorously.

"Are you all right, Doctor?" cried Victoria.

"Perfectly," came the Doctor's voice. He sounded irritated. A few scraps of bark and twig fell from the hole, followed by a whitish cocoon. "Hm, this thing is filled with trash. So typical. Very untidy." Suddenly a spiderlike creature almost two inches across, striped purple and yellow with green polka dots, dropped to the ground and scuttled into the grass. Victoria screamed and jumped back, landing on the metal plate as the Doctor shouted, "Be careful, I think I may have activated something..."

A low humming sounded from the metal plate. Victoria felt a strange vibration beneath her feet. "Doctor?" she said nervously, and then a miasma of energy played around her, and she glowed and faded into nothing.

Jamie yelled in shock. "Doctor, Victoria's gone!"

There was a crashing sound in the tree as the Doctor half climbed, half fell, to the ground. "What happened, Jamie?"

"There were all these colored lights around her and she just disappeared!" Jamie stammered. "What's happened to her, Doctor?"

"Did she step on the platform?" demanded the Doctor.

"I think so. Yes, but where is she?"

"Well, don't worry then. I think she's just been transported. Watch this." The Doctor tossed a small stone over the plate. It landed unaffected in the grass on the other side, and he frowned, held another stone above the plate, and dropped it. As soon as it touched the metal it glowed and blinked out of sight. "It's pressure-activated," he murmured. "I think we've solved the puzzle of the trap door. Let's see where it leads, shall we?"

He stepped onto the plate, and the rainbow effect surrounded him. When it cleared, he was no longer there.

Jamie stared popeyed for a moment at the empty space. "Doctor...?" he said softly. There was no reply.

(Some distance away, a man slipped behind a large boulder on the top of the ridge. Peering cautiously over the edge of the rock, he started at the incongruous sight of the large, weathered structure in the valley below. He took out a battered pair of binoculars and focused on the doors. The legend POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX meant nothing to him and he refocused on the young fellow standing by the transmat platform, looking faintly ridiculous in his strange checkered skirt. The watcher pulled a small radio transmitter from a pocket in his khaki uniform, extended its antenna and started to speak...)

A chill wind ruffled Jamie's kilt. He looked around at the deserted garden, shivered and gingerly stepped onto the metal plate.

Nothing happened.


	5. Chapter Four

Chapter Four 

Victoria's surroundings had changed abruptly from the palace gardens to a small room, dimly lit by high fluorescent panels, whose walls seemed to be hewn from some kind of reddish sandstone. She was standing on a triangular platform facing a tall door split neatly down the middle and slightly ajar. Both door and platform seemed to be made of the same metal as the plate she had stepped on in the garden, and the floor was some kind of textured rubbery stuff. A sort of table or shelf stood in one corner, covered with nameless bits of machinery, and there was a metal rectangle set into one wall, a computer panel with lights and buttons and gauges labeled in a strange language and script. A thick layer of dust covered all the surfaces and it immediately set Victoria sneezing. She stumbled off the platform, casting wildly about her for anything in the least familiar and sneezing violently.

Suddenly the platform sparked and made a whining sound. Victoria shrieked and backed into the nearest wall, little thinking that doing this had been what got her here in the first place... wherever here was, anyway. She was immensely relieved when the Doctor materialized.

"Oh, Doctor!" she cried, and ran to him, suddenly feeling a lot better about being stuck in a cavern on a strange planet with no idea how she had gotten there.

He patted her on the shoulder. "Didn't I say not to worry?" he chided mildly.

"What happened?" said Victoria. The Doctor looked around. "It's a transmat room!" he said happily. "Plain simple dimensional gateway. I've always liked those. I suppose Jamie'll be along any..."

There was a sudden billowing of purple smoke from beneath the platform and the lights dimmed momentarily. Victoria winced.

"Or... not," said the Doctor. He peered under the platform and frowned. "There's been a power surge." He examined the control panel carefully. "This hasn't been used for ages!" he exclaimed, crawling halfway under the platform. He came out cobwebby and sneezing. "Someone reconnected half of these circuits wrong. It's almost as if they only wanted it to work once or twice."

"Where are we?" said Victoria, shivering.

"The Great Labyrinth, without a doubt," answered the Doctor, looking around appreciatively. "Remarkable, isn't it? The proto-Vanussians carved out the entire thing with their bare hands. Well, almost. You see these slots on the walls? They used to hold torches in the glory days of the place. There were some fine old tales of monsters and such living here..."

"Who are the Vanussians?" said Victoria, worried about the monster bit.

"They're the inhabitants of Vanussia, the eastern continent of this planet." His voice changed to disapproval. "But I don't recognize any of this mess -- they even put in a new floor!"

He kicked the rubber with his toe, wandered over to the screen, blew some of the dust off and pushed a few buttons. Nothing happened. "It's obvious," he continued, "that the Vanussians were using this place for something they considered rather important. A control base of some kind, perhaps. Or..." His face grew grim. "Perhaps a bomb shelter."

"A bomb shelter? Were they going to have a war? Is that what destroyed the planet?"

"Possibly; maybe; perhaps." The Doctor tested the doors. They squeaked in their dusty tracks. "Come on, let's explore the place. If nothing else, we need to get back to the surface and find Jamie. Who knows what trouble he's gotten himself into by this time?"

-

When Jamie had realized that standing on the metal plate was getting him nowhere, he didn't panic: he decided to go straight back to the TARDIS and wait. It wasn't until he tried the door and found it locked that the sheer emptiness of this pseudo-Eden hit him. Other than the plants and trees and that garish spider there had been no sound or sight of life, intelligent or not.

The relative peace, in the light of most of his other experiences with aliens, should have reassured him; instead it terrified him. He kept imagining that something was watching him or creeping up his back or aiming at his neck.

Jamie considered his options. There was no way to break into the TARDIS and the Doctor carried the only key. He could just wait where he was and hope someone friendly would show up. But suppose someone _un_friendly showed up instead? Maybe the Emperor, whoever he was, wouldn't like finding strangers in his garden. Logic told him to take to the high ground. He rejected the trees out of hand (spiders) and the TARDIS roof (hah!) was too exposed. The top of the ridge, hidden under thick bushes, was the best option he could think of.

He pulled out the old fighting dagger that he always kept in his boot and carefully etched a message to the Doctor on a piece of detached bark, hoping against hope that the aliens couldn't read English. This accomplished, he turned his back on the TARDIS and marched bravely up the hill.

(The khaki watcher slowly backed away from the rock and faded into the surrounding shrubbery.)

The ridge faced west. It was, Jamie guessed, about three in the afternoon, and the high sun glinted off of tall, graceful spires far in the distance. A city -- and over the fragile silver structures Jamie's mind superimposed a steaming, cratered lava field under a boiling sky. He turned away, sickened by the image, and gazed wistfully at the TARDIS standing alone in the valley.

"All right, you, stand still."

Panic coursed through Jamie an instant too late. He slowly turned his head. The voice belonged to a boy very nearly his own age, dressed in an assortment of blue velvet and gold braid that had obviously seen better days, with a cape slung over one shoulder. He had an honest face, if one that had seen too much too soon and too fast. Jamie had seen faces like that in his own era on Earth. A twisted rag around the boy's head covered the place where his right eye should have been.

"Here, who are you then?" said Jamie, backing away.

The boy raised his right hand. "No, no, don't try anything." The gun was so small Jamie had almost missed it, although the way it was aimed he doubted it would have missed him. "Get down here under cover. That's right. Gamra, get his knife."

A rustling in the bushes in front of Jamie produced a thin fellow in a sort of dirty uniform and matching headband, caked with mud and sprinkled with pine needles, and fairly bristling with weapons. In another moment Jamie was disarmed.

"You've been spying on me!" said Jamie angrily.

"More than just you," said the boy. "Gamra?"

"Clearer today," said the thin man. "Lots of the new ones about, the khaki ones. Don't seem to be doing anything, though, just watching."

"Watching the watchers," grumbled the boy. "What are they doing here? What's the point?"

"What are who doing here?" asked Jamie.

The boy looked at him sharply. "_You_ should know. All those new patrols. We knew about the old ones, that's normal, but now there are all these new ones hiding about. What are you doing on my father's estate?"

"Your father? Your father's the Emperor then?"

The boy laughed in disbelief. "Fire, where have _you_ been? My father's been dead for a month, and me and what's left of the Royal Guard hiding out all that time. What's your name?"

"Jamie. Jamie McCrimmon."

A sudden suspicion flared in the boy's remaining eye. "Where are you from?"

"Well, that's a bit difficult to explain..."

"Oh, great. Just great," said the boy sarcastically. "As if all this wasn't enough, now we have other-siders spying on the palace. Well, it's no good, I'm not in there." He laughed.

"What's your name?" said Jamie.

"You really don't know? They didn't brief you very well, did they? I'm the man you're out to get. Cerf Eldar, Prince and Emperor-by-right."

"All right, Prince Eldar, nobody sent me an' I'm not out to get anybody. An' will you please put the gun down? Who's after you, anyway?"

Cerf Eldar looked thoughtful. "This is almost too bizarre. Almost. What do you think, Gamra?"

The thin man, whose expression had not changed during the whole discussion, said, "For what it's worth, Highness, I've never heard of other-siders in that sort of uniform. But," he added hastily, "I wouldn't trust just anyone now."

The Prince considered, staring hard at Jamie with his one eye. It was not a comfortable stare.

"Look," said Jamie, "I promise I'm not part of any conspiracy and I'm not after you or anyone else."

"Trust must begin somewhere," said the Prince softly, as if quoting someone. Apparently reaching a decision, he stuck the tiny gun in a belt pouch. "All right, Jamie, you want to hear the sad story of the past few months?"

"Aye, thanks," said Jamie.

The Prince grinned. "And you can call me Cerf."

-

"You see?" panted the Doctor. "Someone has been here less than a month ago. Look at the dust!"

Victoria felt like she had been running forever. The doors in the rectangular room had opened into a long orange-brown corridor, which had led to another corridor, which in turn had split into three or four other identical corridors and so on and so on. She had no idea what they were running for -- she didn't see anything dangerous in the boring, dusty hallways.

The clouds of dust did seem a bit thinner here and Victoria breathed gratefully. "I knew something like this would happen," she panted. "We haven't been on this planet half an hour and already we're hopelessly lost."

"We're not so lost," the Doctor retorted. "I visited these caverns on a school trip when I was young, centuries before they moved all this modern stuff in. _Then_ I was lost. I must have memorized the whole labyrinth before they found me."

"So you know a way out?"

"Of course! Well, if they haven't built something over it."

Up ahead the tunnel they were in ran into another tunnel. Another identical tunnel. Victoria was just deciding that she hated Vanussian architecture and wondering whether they would go left or right when the Doctor skidded to a halt. She stopped so fast she almost fell over and the Doctor pulled her back against the wall. "Shhh!"

Lacking the breath to form a coherent answer, Victoria obeyed. A sudden breeze stirred the dust at their feet and a faint hum sounded from the corridor up ahead. They both pressed flat against the wall as a coppery box floated into view, equipped with three antigrav devices. It was half again as long as Victoria was tall, and as wide as the Doctor's outstretched arms, and there was an ornate handle of twisted copper on the front and a set of control panels in the back.

Beside it strode two soldiers in khaki battle fatigues. Each had a hat that looked like a blue-green fez, dark hair down to his shoulders and a simple-looking stun gun strapped to his belt. Each seemed to be guiding the box with one hand, keeping the other close to his weapon. The taller soldier had patterned stripes on his left sleeve, and two bluish-green tassels on his hat, while the other had only one.

"These aren't Vanussians," breathed the Doctor. "There's something awfully odd about this. When I say run, we run."

They slowly backed away toward the corner. Victoria found the Doctor's statement strangely ironic: there had been something -- usually a lot of somethings -- odd about everything they had come across since she had met him and Jamie. Then, looking back, she saw the face of the nearer soldier -- proud and hawklike and cruel. She had never seen anyone who looked so purely vindictive.

Her heart seemed to be pounding twice as fast as it had when she had been running. _Don't come this way. Don't turn left. Please don't turn left_...

They turned left.

"Right, run!" The Doctor and Victoria bolted for the nearest tunnel – too far away! – and then stopped abruptly as at least six blaster bolts flared past them and made sizzling heat spots on the walls. Victoria screamed.

The two raised their hands and slowly turned around. The Phestans had abandoned the huge box and were hurrying down the corridor toward them, ray guns out and ready. The shorter one was younger, and had a puzzled, questioning expression, but the taller one's face was as grimly impassive as the surrounding stone.

Victoria slumped against the wall and almost cried as the Doctor stepped forward and said hopefully, "I say, can either of you tell us the best way to the surface?"


	6. Chapter Five

Chapter Five 

Cerf pointed. "You see the turrets around the castle wall there?"

"Aye," said Jamie. From the vantage point of the ridge, all the turrets and domes were visible, and most of the castle's outer wall.

"The top window in the second one on the left is my father's old office. I used to have my lessons there. He got me a tutor about a year ago, one Kedas Hron Hrothgar from somewhere on the outer edge. I hated him, I don't know why, but my father liked him. He was my father's best friend from the day they met."

Cerf stared out towards the palace. Afternoon sunlight was glinting off the domes. "A month ago my father died. His heart had been bothering him for a long time. We all knew it was coming. For some reason he made Hron Regent of Vanussia until I come of age. That's pretty soon now. Anyway, after the expected week of mourning, Hron got all new palace guards and came after us. I think they killed my mother, and most of our personal guard didn't escape. Gamra and Alendar got me out, and we've been hiding here ever since."

Alendar, who had scared Jamie half out of his skin by creeping back into camp silently and with no kind of warning, was the second Guard and the last of Cerf's party. He looked up and nodded curtly, got out a little round tin of something black and a rough cloth, and set about cleaning his gun. The four of them were hidden in a different thicket, finishing a meal of some kind of biscuit -- Cerf had told Jamie they had an almost unlimited supply somewhere.

"What I don't understand," said Jamie, "is why the place isn't swarming with sentries. Fake Emperors need even more protection than real ones, but there was no one about when we landed, and we were walking all over the place."

"That's where we were smart and they were not," said Cerf proudly. "We got away in my little hoverboat. For all they know we could be anywhere in Vanussia. The last place they're looking for us is here. The grounds are enormous too, and the sentries are mostly around the perimeter, so there's plenty of space for improvisation. You folks were lucky enough to come right between two of their scheduled walkthroughs." He paused for a moment and continued, "If your friends did end up down in the Labyrinth, let's hope they had the sense to stay where they were. You can get really lost down there."

"Look, you said you'd seen the other end of that transmat down in the caves," said Jamie. "Now, how do I get in there?"

"That's where we've been hiding," said Cerf.

"Can you show me how to get in? I have to look for my friends."

"You'll need a guide," said Cerf. "We'll help you if you and your friends'll help us."

"Now, just a minute. Help you do what?"

"The Thane of Krakor knew my father," said Cerf. "That's the only reason there's been peace so long. If I could get to the screen in my father's office, I could convince him Hron's a traitor. He could help me get back my kingdom. But we need some help getting in."

Jamie was about to answer when Alendar looked suddenly up at the Palace and then across at Cerf and spoke for the first time. "Hide."

"Hide, Jamie!" Cerf dragged Jamie deeper into the undergrowth. The Guards had already melted into the shrubbery on the left and right. Jamie and Cerf, running as quickly and silently as they could, almost ran right over a sinister-looking soldier in a khaki uniform and greenish hat. They split up, and Jamie almost ran over another one. The woods rang with shouts and blaster fire, and the khaki soldiers started popping up all over the place. There were very few ways in which such a chase could end. For Jamie, it ended with a searing burst of blue-white fire, and a sudden blackness.

-

Victoria was not happy. The Phestans had wasted no time in lashing their captives to the fancy handle on the front of the copper box, and were debating, presumably, what to do with them. The Doctor had protested loudly and eloquently in English, which the soldiers apparently didn't understand, annoying them no end until one of them had threatened Victoria with a stun gun. Victoria didn't like being threatened with stun guns and had let anyone within a twenty-mile radius know it.

The Doctor had shut up and kept a sullen silence since then, slumping with his back to the box. He looked like he dearly wanted to be playing his recorder. Victoria moped for a while, absently listening to the soldiers' strange language. Abruptly she turned to the Doctor and asked, "Doctor, what are they saying?"

The Doctor looked sharply at her. "You can't understand them?" She shook her head. He blinked, muttering, "That isn't right at all. Odd, very odd..." and then lapsed back into silence.

She waited a moment and asked again, "Well, what are they saying?" When he didn't answer, she continued, "If they're going to broil us alive or something I want to know about it."

"How should I know what they're saying?" he grumbled irritably. "I can't read minds."

Victoria laughed. "You can't fool me, Doctor. I'm sure... ow!" The Doctor had kicked her ankle lightly. "What was that for?"

"Ammonium dichromate," the Doctor said.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Shhh! You know, (NH4)2Cr2O7," said the Doctor, as if imparting some great secret.

For a rare moment, Victoria was speechless. Then a shadow fell across the floor and she suddenly noticed that the taller Phestan had come over to see what all the noise was about. This time she got the hint.

"The decomposition reaction of ammonium dichromate is very exothermic," said the Doctor, as if continuing a conversation. Then he looked up, pretending to notice the trooper for the first time. "Do you mind? My young companion is getting her physics lesson."

The trooper snarled at them and went back to his comrade and their very noisy discussion. "Infernal cheek," muttered the Doctor, and lapsed back into silence. The younger soldier seemed to be disagreeing with the evil-looking one about something. Victoria found herself hoping the younger one would win.

Her gaze strayed to their uniforms. "There's a funny thing," she said. "Look at their hats, Doctor. Don't those tassles look exactly like the ones on your recorder?"

"Yes," said the Doctor in surprise, "so they are. I was given those tassels here, you know, in the future."

Minutes later the Phestans seemed to agree on something, and motioned the two time travelers to rise. They guided the Doctor and Victoria, still tied to the box, through the dusty maze as if they knew every inch of it.

-

Jamie opened his eyes, sat up and promptly fell over. He felt cold metal around his wrists and a terrible pounding in his head and a stiff wind whipping past his ears -- he was moving, and moving fast. He sat up again and shook his head to clear it. He was on the deck of a boat long and low and powerful, sailing, he guessed, towards the city he had seen earlier, at an incredible speed.

He noticed that Cerf was sprawled on the deck next to him. The young Prince seemed to be breathing normally, and Jamie considered waking him, but decided against it. The pain of waking up normally was bad enough without help.

The boat itself was nothing special: just a large gray oblong deck ringed by a black metal railing, a few funnels and benches, a thick spool of cable and what looked like a control booth in the front. Jamie had seen far fancier vessels since he had become the Doctor's companion. _Nothing to write home about_, he thought, and at once regretted thinking. The cuffs on their wrists were apparently made of copper and stout chains led to the rail, which meant that they couldn't jump out and swim to shore, even if Cerf turned out to be in any kind of condition for swimming. _Fine. We'll just have to escape some other way then._

Turning, Jamie saw a guard sitting on a metal bench on the other side of the boat. He was of average height, thin, dressed in a dull khaki uniform and a funny hat with a tassel on it. And he was staring straight at Jamie.

Jamie flinched. The man had the meanest face he had ever seen and, if that weren't enough, was fingering a dangerous-looking weapon -- a gun of sorts. Seeing that Jamie was awake, he fingered his trigger, winked nastily and sneered at the prisoners.

In moments the boy's Highland spirit reasserted itself and he got to his feet. "Here now, what's the idea of all this?" he demanded, rattling the chain indignantly. "Who do you think you are, anyway?"

The guard let out a short bark of laughter and called out to someone in the front of the boat. The harsh language was like nothing that Jamie had ever heard. A reply floated back. The guard shouted something sarcastic, turned to Jamie and snarled. Jamie glared back defiantly but retreated to the rail.

That was when he realized that the 'boat' was sailing on air. This shocked him for a moment, but he had seen stranger things since joining the Doctor.

The Doctor... it suddenly struck Jamie that he could have been unconscious for hours, and the Doctor and Victoria were still missing. Or had they returned safely to the TARDIS and found him gone? Maybe they were already looking for him. Heartened by the prospect, Jamie sat down next to the rail and watched the gleaming city draw closer.

Cerf awoke and groaned, "Owooo my head."

"Don't worry, Alexander, you'll be fine in another few minutes," said Jamie loudly.

"Alexander?" Cerf tried to get up and then decided not to try that again for a while.

Jamie had picked the first name to come into his head. "Look, we've been captured," he whispered. "Just go along with me, all right? You don't want to be telling them who you really are."

Cerf moved his hands, heard the clink of chain, nodded and hung his head in a sudden flare of agony. He looked around painfully. "These are the spies I was telling you about. The ones who've been watching the palace. I guess we'll find out who they are soon enough, eh?"

Suddenly the hovercraft swerved sharply to the left. It seemed to be heading toward a steep grassy bank along the side of the lake. As Jamie watched, a section of earth slid slowly down, until most of it extended out over the water. Jamie heard the creaking of heavy machinery. Behind it gaped a black square hole, framed by metal bars and locks.

The hovercraft shot into the hole without even slowing down.


	7. Chapter Six

Chapter Six 

They had gone on like that for what seemed like hours until the Doctor had announced that he couldn't take it anymore. He had stopped dead at a crossroad between seven tunnels, jerking Victoria to a halt as well, and launched into a detailed description of how simply exhausted they were and why the company would have to stop and rest or leave him behind. Their captors had conferred for a while, halfheartedly pretending they didn't understand every word the Doctor was saying. Apparently deciding on a rest period, they had seated themselves against a wall and taken out a canteen of water and a ration bar each. The prisoners, left to their own devices, sat down facing a near wall, with their backs against the box and their hands tied behind them.

Victoria watched the soldiers eating. "Oh, I'm hungry, Doctor," she said miserably.

He nodded. "That isn't very nice of them, is it, not offering us any? Well, never mind, we'll eat when we get back to the TARDIS."

"The TARDIS?" said Victoria, shaking her head. "Do you really think we'll get back there? We've been down here for hours, and now we're going all the way back where we came from." They were indeed. Every now and again the troupe had taken a short cut' where the dust was undisturbed, but they had always returned to those tunnels marked by the time travelers' hasty passing.

"Yes, we are, aren't we?" said the Doctor, looking worried. "What's the matter, Doctor?" asked Victoria.

"That book you were reading just before we landed. I think it was left over from Susan's collection, which would explain why it never ended up in the library. What was it?"

Victoria had to think for a minute. "It was called '_A Better Way_'," she said. "The story of the Dragon Day Treaty, I think. It said volume one. But why?"

"Extraordinary," muttered the Doctor. "Did you get to the part about the assassination?"

"I was only up to the second chapter. You mean the Emperor dies? I'd started liking him."

"I think the Emperor's already dead," said the Doctor. "That book contains the history of the two main continents of Efes at this time. I do wish you had brought it with you."

"I put it down in the control room." Victoria's eyes widened. "So the book says everything we're doing now? How does it turn out?"

"It doesn't say anything about _us_," said the Doctor. "I would have remembered from reading it. But it did state explicitly that these tunnels were _not_ used until twenty years from now, when my old friend Sarchas Allan started a martial arts school in the big cavern under the lake, so none of this should be here at all. That might be the first thing that's wrong with the timeline, and if we could..." He trailed off again, and Victoria finally leaned back against the box and closed her eyes.

For several minutes neither spoke. The guards, intent on their meal, ignored them, and presently the Doctor nudged Victoria. She started, her train of thought broken. He stared intently into her face for a moment and then, breaking into a cheerful grin, showed her his untied hands.

"How did you do that?" asked Victoria, astonished.

"Oh, that's only a neat little trick I picked up from an American escape artist, what was his name now? I forget. We're only lucky nobody taught our friends there how to tie an effective knot. Now shhh: the less they notice us in the next few moments the better." The Doctor quickly hid his hands behind his back as one of the Phestans looked up from his food, rewarding the soldier with a how-could-you-do-this-to-me glare. As soon as the soldier's attention was diverted, the Doctor sneaked one hand out and started working on Victoria's bonds. It took him five minutes.

"Thank you," she said gratefully, rubbing her wrists where the rope had scored her. You don't really appreciate having hands, she thought, until you're unable to use them.

Checking carefully to make sure the guards weren't looking, the Doctor got a crumpled paper bag out of his pocket. "Here," he said, "take a jelly baby. It's always nice to have them about, you know, in case of emergencies."

-

Jamie sat fuming near Cerf on a heavy packing case, chained to a copper ring set in the wall of a cavern so vast he couldn't see any end to it. Wide decks along the walls held spare parts and half-completed hoverboats, and the place was packed with Phestans in the same weird uniform as the mean-faced guard, all marching back and forth, climbing ladders and fixing machinery. The harsh fluorescent lights strung along the cavern ceiling served only to deepen the shadows under the decks. The hall was full of potential hiding places, were it not for the handcuffs and chains.

The pilot of the hoverboat, a tall individual with a graying ponytail and a face that looked like it had been carved out of the side of a cliff, was conferring with a nervous-looking fellow with a set of gold stripes on his sleeves. They had been at it for some time, and were showing no signs of stopping.

"Hey, how long are you going to keep us here?" shouted Jamie.

Some passing troopers glanced at him, looking annoyed, and kept going.

Jamie stood up and paced back and forth in as large a circle as the chains would allow. Cerf was staring around him with awe and a good deal of anger. He was muttering something.

"What's that?"

"I can't believe it. How can they just do this? Who could possibly supply a project of this magnitude? Hron must know about it. It's impossible for him not to. My father would never have allowed it. I've got to contact the Thane..."

"Shhh! Remember where we are, _Alexander_."

"Hah. Can't take my mind off it."

"You know anything about this place? Who these people are or anything?"

Cerf looked around. "No, but it's obvious. Look at all this -- it's virtually a weapons factory. It must be some kind of invasion. I can see it now, Hron planned it all along." Cerf was getting madder by the minute.

"All right, all right, just don't do anything daft!" said Jamie exasperatedly. "We have to get away from here first. And I've still got to find the Doctor and Victoria."

"I know." Cerf's fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white. Then his eyes widened. "Jamie!" he said in a surprised whisper. "I still have my needler. I stuck it up my sleeve before they caught us."

"Hey, the guards must have missed it! That's a bit of luck. They got my dagger though -- uh oh, here they come."

The debriefing was apparently over, and the pilot was leading the thin-faced nervous character over. "Look," said Jamie, "let me do the talking, right?" Cerf looked rebellious for a minute, and then nodded.

"So," said the pilot. He had Jamie's dagger and was turning it over and over in his hands. His voice fitted his face exactly, sounding like boulders grinding together. "My name is Shen Tellisn Onash. I suppose you have names?"

"I'm James Robert McCrimmon and this is my brother, Alexander. We're not from around here."

"Alexander?" said the pilot, slurring the unfamiliar name and sounding a little as if he had just been introduced to Quadrato the Invincible and his sidekick Saturna. "And... Robert? Are you Islanders?"

"No. And the name's Jamie."

"Odd sort of way to call yourself. We of Vanussia reserve our second names for common use, and I believe the Krakods only have two each. I am Tellisn, should occasion arise for using names. Did you have a reason for being in the Regent's private gardens?"

"We were lost."

The thin-faced officer now looked nervous and exasperated -- not a pleasant combination. "We could lock them up till Sode gets back."

Tellisn looked at him for a moment, a long, unnerving stare. "Is that something you should be asking me about, Controller?" He turned back to the prisoners and stepped closer, staring at Cerf. "You have been seen in the gardens before. You have been charting our movements. Why?"

Jamie winced: there went "lost." Cerf glared back at the pilot. "You have no right on the Emperor's estate."

The stare became colored with suspicion. "Who are you to question our right?"

Cerf kept his mouth firmly shut.

Tellisn turned away, not backing down but withdrawing from the question. "It is no matter. 'Truth has but one face.'" He looked at the Controller and so did not see Cerf's eyes widen in shock. "I suggest this one be taken to the cells while I question the other. He seems the most articulate. Has Commander Khe returned yet?"

"I... suggestion taken. But they're still in the maze."

-

"I think we've been here before."

The two Phestans had long since abandoned any pretense of not understanding English. The shorter one ground his teeth in exasperation, while the taller one simply glowered.

"I really do. I'm certain I recognize that dust formation..."

_This is ridiculous_, thought Victoria as she stumbled wearily along in front of the box. What was the good of having one's hands free when the enemy had blasters? And the Doctor seemed content for some reason to play along, tramping for hours and complaining all the way.

On the bright side, Victoria supposed that the Phestans were being driven completely mad.

The Doctor stopped again at another crossroads, causing the box to recoil into the soldiers, and said triumphantly, "We _have_ been here before."

The Phestans glared around the fork. There were impressions in the dust where four humanoids and something rectangular had rested. There was also a piece of red and silver foil wrapper from a ration bar.

"Tsk, messy, messy. Where to now?" drawled the Doctor.

The soldiers glared bloody murder at the Doctor, and then started to jabber a mile a minute, obviously blaming each other for the snafu. Victoria, watching them, suddenly frowned in puzzlement. "Doctor, I can understand some of what they're saying! What's going on? ...Doctor?"

The Doctor was listening intently to the Phestans' babbling and didn't seem to hear her at all. Then he said, "Oh, I see. The TARDIS translator circuits are finally making sense of the language."

"What?"

"Well, how do you think we can understand the people in all the different places and eras we visit? The TARDIS translates for us."

"My head hurts."

"That's to be expected. It's a synthetic language, you see, like a code, and your brain is having difficulty managing the syntax. It shouldn't take you too long to get used to it. Now listen, Victoria, we have to get that book from the TARDIS."

"Why?"

"Because it is our only guide to the future of Efes. We can't just do _anything_ here -- we have to stick to the established timeline. Now, listen carefully. Take _that_ corridor. Go right, right, left, straight past three intersections and left. Then follow the red line in the wall until you get out. It's a bit of a long go and it gets steep, but you should be all right."

She stared at him. "What? Me?"

"Victoria, this box we're tied to is full of tritium bombs and I've got an idea that history doesn't mean it to go where these individuals want it to go. Here, take the TARDIS key and find that book. Both volumes, if you can. It's essential." The Doctor pressed the key into her hand. "You and Jamie wait for me in the TARDIS. You should be safe in there. Don't worry, I'll catch up to you soon. Remember, right, right, left, straight, straight, straight, left, and hurry."

Victoria nodded. Keeping low to the floor, she moved toward the indicated passage.

A blue energy blast sizzled past her head and scorched a wall. She ducked and hurtled into the corridor. She heard the confused soldiers firing and ran for her life. They had been completely taken off guard. Eventually their angry cries faded behind her.


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven 

The two Phestans stared down the hallway at the settling dust their quarry had left. Aside from the dust, it had been a very clean escape.

Reluctantly, Khe put his weapon back into its holster and turned to his companion. "That girl would never have bolted on her own initiative."

Auburning was still staring down the corridor. "Well, she may still run into a patrol. But we're going to look ridiculous for letting her get away."

Khe snorted. "All the more reason to get a move on. We must learn who they are and how they got this far into the catacombs without setting off sixty intruder alerts; and I'm not entirely sure the Doctor can't understand the code. Come--"

With one accord the two turned and tramped back to the tunnel in which they had left the copper box. They came to the crossroads. And stopped short.

And stared in consternation at the empty loops of twine, now piled limply on the floor. The Doctor was nowhere to be seen, and the dust was disturbed in _all six_ tunnels.

The two warriors circled the fork in confusion. Then the lieutenant noticed something else. "Look, sir! He's taken the antigravity units. There's no way we can move the box now without help."

Khe grew very red. "He could be anywhere by now. We'll never find him in these catacombs."

They both stared at the box, which was resting quite heavily on the rubber floor. Finally Auburning spoke up hopefully.

"We can't... open the box, can we? Rig up a suppression field and just carry the inner casing?"

"If the present field is disturbed it would automatically self-destruct. It's built that way. No, the only option is to go back to base and requisition more antigrav units." Suddenly there was a beeping noise. The commander took out his transmitter and extended the antenna. "Khe here."

The voice was scratchy. "Commander, Tellisn and the palace patrol caught two individuals snooping round the Emperor's backyard."

Alendar's eyes bulged. Khe covered the speaker with his hand and muttered, "That's impossible. It must be two other people." He turned back to the communicator. "And?"

"Sir, General Sode is gone to the Capital. We need you to interrogate the prisoners."

"Is this army made up of children?" said Khe acidly. "It is imperative that our mission be carried out. Isn't there anyone else capable of performing a simple interrogation?"

There was a pause. "Tellisn seems to think this is a special case," said the voice.

"On our way," said Khe. "And get out four more antigrav units. Ours... failed."

"That's odd," said the voice. "All right, signing off."

Khe put his communicator away. "Incompetent Vanussian scum," he muttered.

Auburning spread his hands in exasperation. "Commander, _why_ is it so imperative that we get this box to the transmat room?"

"Forget it. Need-to-know basis, and you don't. Come on."

They stared at each other carefully. Finally, without another word, they started up a corridor.

As soon as the warriors were out of earshot, the Doctor, who had been pressed to the ceiling high above them the whole time, turned a knob on one of the pilfered antigrav controls and floated quietly to the ground.

The units were on their original setting, which, although sufficient to hold the Doctor on the ceiling, floated the much heavier box about half a meter from the floor. The Doctor turned the power knob from 'substantial', past 'very high indeed' and all the way to 'excessive', and set the field wide enough to include himself. Then, upside down, calmly walking the copper box along the ceiling, he set off in the opposite direction.

-

"All right, signing off." The petty officer pushed a button and turned to Tellisn. "He's on his way, sir, and you're to authorize another four antigravity units."

"Why?"

The Commander says his units failed."

Tellisn turned away. "All four at once? That's almost impossible!... Well, have the _Ej'ka'enhr_ get another four out of stores."

Since Cerf had been led away, the stone-faced Tellisn -- a subcommander, as it turned out -- had done nothing but attend to the business of the base. They had moved to Communications, a small room just off the main cavern, containing several speakers, a panel full of colored buttons, and a large screen, presently dark. Jamie was sitting on a chair in a corner, quietly smoldering.

Tellisn, after dismissing the petty officer, sat down at the only desk and began typing something into a hand computer. Without warning he said, "Jamie. You do not resemble Alexander in the slightest."

Jamie was startled, but not caught off guard. "Aye, everyone's always said so."

"You do not speak alike either."

"Well... I've been away for a long time."

"I see. Very convenient. Where have you been?"

Sometimes the truth made an effective shield. "Scotland, England, Atlantis, Tibet, Skaro, Telos, the Moonbase, all sorts of places."

Tellisn looked up. "Moonbase? What moonbase? What are you talking about?"

Jamie thought fast. "Oh, it's not really on a moon, it's just called that."

"I have never heard of..." A sudden commotion from without interrupted Tellisn, and he rose and stared at the door. "The General is coming." There was a glint of grim humor in the subcommander's steely eyes as he glanced at Jamie, saying, "Don't tell him anything you wouldn't tell me."

"Eh?" said Jamie, blinking. But Tellisn was no longer looking at him. He shuffled the rest of the papers on the desk into a neat pile, stood up and moved away from the working side of the desk only just in time.

It was a primitive door, on hinges, and made a very satisfying slam as someone kicked it open. There was an immediate cloud of dust, out of which stepped a man with enough gold braid on his uniform to deck out several armies. His hair was a wild black mane and he had been out in the sun too long, and his eyes were like bottomless pits. He took the situation in with a glance and started screaming at Tellisn in the same bewildering language that Tellisn had been using with the guard on the hoverboat. The strange thing was, Jamie could understand some of it.

"Onash again. Onash! Onash! Onash! You idiot. Where is the other one? What do you think you're trying to do? You traitor! _Aedrek khafitae aeno wwwm_! You think you're in charge? _Aeranh t'kath_? You think you're the general? Do you? Do you? _Do you_?"

If Tellisn did, he wasn't saying. Jamie pressed a hand to his head. Whether it was the screaming or the recent stun, he felt his headache coming back.

The tirade continued. "Sode _klaye_ Capitol, Khe _kla_ the catacombs, Onash thinks he can take over? You blundering _fija_! Where did that knife come from? Hah? Where?"

Tellisn spoke evenly, as if reciting a lesson. "It belonged to this person. James Robert McCrimmon. He was armed with nothing else."

"Give me that!" The General whirled around and pointed the knife at Jamie. "Spy? James. Robert. Spies. You're a spy. You're all spies. You!" He whirled again and pointed the knife at Tellisn. "I know you. You're on their side. Guard! Tarj! Khafee! Lehalkya!"

Several soldiers piled into the little room. The General turned on them savagely. "Where's Tarj? You! Get Tarj! You and you, get these traitors down to the cells and if they try to escape shoot them down!"

Tellisn rolled his eyes to the ceiling as his wrists were locked together and fastened to the other end of Jamie's chain. He looked not at all worried about having been arrested as a traitor. He seemed resigned, as though things like this happened all the time. Jamie wondered what it was like to be commanded by General Sodos. It couldn't be all that pleasant.

The first guard turned to the door just as it swung open and the Controller stumbled in, almost too terrified to walk properly. The General greeted him with a pleasantly snakelike smile and spoke in such an ordinary, calm voice that Jamie almost looked around to see who else was in the room. "Ah, Tarj, what have you done in my absence?"

As the guards led the two captives through the door Jamie held back. "Hey!" he yelled. "I'll want that dagger back some day, y'know!"

-

Victoria waited for a while, hiding in the mouth of a passage through which she could smell clean air and grasses. Her feet kept going numb, and the tunnel echoed alarmingly every time she moved. Finally she said, very quietly, "Oh, he's not coming."

The passage became narrower and darker as she went along, but the cold fluorescent light of the Labyrinth quickly gave way to a golden, airy glow. Eventually she slipped past a particularly tight corner and out into a large cave. It was clearly inhabited. There were three sleeping blankets neatly rolled up, at least twenty large unmarked wooden crates stacked against a wall, and a flashy little hoverboat almost next to her.

For a moment she did not dare to move, in case someone else was in the cave, or outside and about to enter. Then she tiptoed to the crack that was admitting the golden out-of-doors light.

The cave was well hidden by shrubbery and boulders, but there was a good view out. She could see all the way down into the valley. There was the tree that had caused them so much trouble, and there was the blue monument of the TARDIS.

Victoria dug into her jacket pocket and pulled out the key. Then she threw caution to the winds, fought her way past the tangle of vines, and was through and running down the hill, calling for Jamie. He had to be there somewhere, didn't he?

Suddenly a stick shot out of the bushes and tripped her. A hand grabbed her arm, and she screamed.


	9. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight 

The Doctor headed out of a cavern, mopping his face with a handkerchief. He was still on the ceiling, supported by the one remaining antigravity unit. The other three were on the ceiling of the cave he had just left, where they would stay until they ran out of energy, and the copper case of tritium bombs was in another cave several corridors away. Below him, on the floor, the dust was undisturbed, leaving no clues behind.

The Doctor looked around. This tunnel, too, was familiar, but everything looked different from this perspective. A vision nagged at his memory; great caverns, a stone door... something to do with aikido.

That was it. The aikido school. All of a sudden he knew where he was. Now, had good old Sarchas built his school in existing caverns, or had they been excavated for him? Only one way to find out. He headed off towards the tunnel that led to the great cavern under the lake.

-

Jamie was hustled into one of a row of ancient cells, barred on three sides and backed by the red tunnel wall. Tellisn was thrown into the cell on the right of Jamie's, and grids of bright, cheerful copper bars clanged shut behind them.

"Jamie!" cried Cerf, leaving the opposite wall of the cage on the left of Jamie's, where he had been conversing with some other prisoners through the bars. "Are you all right?"

"Right as you are, Alexander," whispered Jamie, winking. "You're supposed to know I've been traveling. I've been to England, Atlantis, Scotland, Tibet, Skaro, Telos, and the Moonbase, which isn't on a moon at all, it's just called that."

Cerf motioned toward Tellisn, who had seated himself in the rude bunk in the back of his cell, and was watching them. "What's _he_ doing in there?"

"I dunno," said Jamie. "He asked me three questions and then his General came in, and I swear the man was mad. Called the subcommander there a traitor and told the guards to lock him up with us. Called us spies, too."

"Oh." Cerf almost laughed. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Imagine us being taken for spies. I suppose I'm the last person they expect in here. Listen, these are Tkar Elfik and Bar Kapik Shotith. They were two of my father's astronomers."

Jamie was getting an idea of the way Phestan names were used. Cerf spoke aloud: "Elfik, Kapik, my younger brother, James Robert McCrimmon. He prefers to be called Jamie."

The two astronomers were both in the same cell, the last in the row. Elfik was the taller of the two, perhaps in her forties, with her light brown hair in a loose bun. Kapik was younger, although not by much, and her black hair was cut short. They were both wearing white prison uniforms, and they looked awed to be in the presence of their Emperor, and puzzled about the strange company he was keeping. Jamie waved at them through the bars, and gave Cerf a nettled glare. Who'd said Jamie had to be younger?

"They know who I am," whispered Cerf. "They ended up down here the day Hron routed the royal family. That proves he's involved in this."

"Right," said Jamie. He counted on his fingers. "Now all we have to do is escape from here without raising all the alarms in the place, find Victoria and the Doctor, get out of the caves, break into the palace..."

"Yeah," said Cerf, completely missing the sarcasm. "Won't be easy, though. You can't dig at this floor, and we're deep underground anyway. Can't bend the bars. Can't squeeze between them, not even Kapik. My needler gun is no use except to stun people. The lock needs a key and I've got nothing to pick it with. The handcuffs are too strong for me. Did you try them?"

"Aye," said Jamie. He moved to sit on his bed. But Cerf said, "Wait a minute."

Jamie came back. Cerf looked nervous. He glanced at the two astronomers. "Jamie," he said. "You know how you said you came from a long ways off?"

"Yes."

"I thought that meant Krakor. You do know where Krakor is?"

Slowly Jamie shook his head.

"Well. It's the continent on the other side of the ocean. But you come from farther away than that, don't you?"

Cerf dropped his voice to a whisper. "Listen, Jamie, I've got to know. As the son of an Emperor, and as a man myself, I've got to know. Are you from this planet at all?"

-----

Short chapter -- sorry... 


	10. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine 

"Lady Victoria," said Alendar, "you must be quiet. These trees are not as empty as they seem."

Victoria pulled her arm away and stumbled into a small clearing behind a thick stand of the ubiquitous iridescent vines. "Be _quiet_? Let me go! Who are you, anyway? How do you know my name?"

Another commando figure came out of the bushes. "There is no time to explain. You came straight from the cave?"

"Yes, but I–"

"There is no _time_. Alendar, the cave." The second of the Royal Guards vanished back up the hill and the first turned back and grabbed Victoria's arm again as she was about to escape down the hill. "Listen to me! This place is heavily guarded. If the watchers follow the pattern we have observed, we have less than two minutes."

"What watchers?" As far as Victoria was concerned, present company was bad enough. "I've got to go down there–"

The Guard was looking out between a few stems. "You would never get across the path."

Victoria looked over his shoulder. There were four soldiers in purple running along the path to the TARDIS, wielding what looked like bayoneted rifles.

"When Alendar comes," said the Guard, "you must get into the hoverboat. It is shielded."

"Who are all those other soldiers?"

"Not our problem. Less than one minute."

"Until what?"

Shrubbery exploded and shredded as the red hovercraft blasted out of the hillside. Several men in shades of brown flung themselves off of the ledge above the mouth of the cave just seconds too late, and fell behind in a wake of dust and leaves. There was shouting and a hail of gunfire from the path as Alendar brought the craft straight up, spun it around all three axes of rotation and stopped it neatly two feet away from his colleague.

The blast shield over the back seat was already open. "Hang on," protested Victoria. "Stop! I've got to get to the TARDIS!" But Gamra had her by the arm again and was helping her over the side. He vaulted into the front seat and the craft spiraled into the air.

-

"I knew it," said Cerf, laughing exultantly. "I knew it." He reached through the bars to shake Jamie's hands. "On behalf of my people, welcome to Efes."

Jamie had just finished telling him something of the true nature of the TARDIS and its crew of three. "Thanks," he said, returning the Prince's firm grip. "'Tisn't often we get such a warm welcome, I can tell you. But now we have to find a way to get out of here."

"That should not be difficult..."

Jamie flinched at the voice and turned, wondering how much Tellisn had heard. The subcommander was now standing by the bars that separated their cells. Cerf, obviously furious with himself for keeping an inadequate watch, stood back with his arms folded, and one hand ready near the cuff of his loose sleeve.

"You have only to call for the guard and ask for some food," said Tellisn solemnly. The gravel voice seemed to be directed at Jamie. "He will have the keys, for the cell must be opened to let anything in. Or out. There will be no others."

Jamie stared. Cerf stared. The two astronomers, who had only heard part of the exchange, looked very confused.

"And you're telling us all this... exactly why?" asked Cerf.

Tellisn's stare did not change. "I left you your needler for a reason, Highness."

Cerf closed his eyes for a moment, adjusting to the new state of affairs, and then turned to the two astronomers and said, "Kapik, please call the guard."

Bar Kapik Shotith shook her head. "It might seem funny. We've been here long enough to know when mealtimes are. If I may make a suggestion, Highness, my sister is an excellent shot, and the guard would not expect any disturbance from this direction."

Cerf nodded. "All right, Jamie, you call the guard. Keep him talking for as long as it takes." He handed the tiny needler gun to Elfik through the bars and then stretched out in his bunk, pretending to be asleep. Tellisn, with one last thin stare at Jamie, sat down again and focused on an invisible point somewhere between himself and the wall in the back of the cell.

Jamie stepped up to his door and rattled his chains against the bars. "Hallo! Hey, guard! Anybody out there?"

Silence. Then, faint movement. Jamie shouted again. "Hey, can anybody hear me? We're starving down here!"

A long-faced soldier shuffled in through a side corridor, trying to pretend he had not been asleep. "Evening meal in one hour, prisoner."

"But we haven't had anything to eat all day," complained Jamie. "How long're you going to keep us down here, anyway? We haven't done anything wrong!"

"All right, all right." The guard shuffled over to a cabinet near the corridor and extracted a flat package wrapped in silver foil. As he walked over to Jamie's door, fumbling at his belt for the keys, Elfik stepped silently forward and raised her hand. There was a faint _pinging_ sound from the needler gun and the guard slumped to the floor near Cerf's cell.

"Well done, Elfik!" cried Cerf, springing from his bunk and dragging the fallen guard closer to the door. He unhooked the key ring and started opening the cells.

"Hey," said Jamie, "are the keys to these things in there?" He rattled his cuffs again.

Tellisn spoke up. "One key fits all."

"Lucky us," said Cerf. "Here it is." He turned back to Tellisn. "Do you want to get out?"

Tellisn came over to the front of his cell. "I assume your needler can be set for stun."

"It already is. The guard will be fine in an hour or so."

Tellisn bowed his head gravely. "When we come to," he said, "we will probably be reprimanded, and nothing further will come of it. My... scolding... will probably be more severe because I missed your needler, but by that time General Sode will have forgotten why he had me incarcerated."

"General Sode," interrupted Kapik, "is completely mad, as far as we can tell."

Tellisn nodded impassively. "True, although I would not have put it as bluntly."

"Why are you doing this?" said Cerf.

Tellisn ignored the question. "That tunnel leads straight back to the main cavern. That one leads deeper into the Labyrinth. Much of it has never been mapped." He wrapped his long hands around two of the bars. "Highness."

Cerf shot him and they all ran down the second tunnel, straight into the Great Labyrinth.

-

They could have taken any other tunnel. But, as it happened, they didn't.

"Jamie!"

"Doctor!"

"What on Efes are you doing down here?"

"How on Earth did you get up there?"

"It's antigravity, Jamie, you've seen it before, on the Moonbase – oh, good heavens, Your Highness. What on Earth are _you_ doing down here?"

"How on Efes do you know who I am?"

"Oh dear. It's a rather long story. I'm the Doctor, how do you do?"

"Be better once we get out of this tunnel."

"Yes, of course, that's certainly understandable. Jamie, I take it we don't want to go that way."

"Aye, you've got that right. Did you find Victoria? Where is she?"

"I sent her back to the TARDIS. That's also a long story."

"Well, we can't hang around talking here. Can you not come down?"

"Yes, all right. Just a minute... there we are. Now, Your Highness, where exactly were you going?"

"We've been looking for a way out, or at least a place to hide for a while."

"Just the thing. I used to know my way around these tunnels, and I think I can find a place where we can be safe for a while."

"Sounds good to me."

"Right, then, this way. Or maybe... no, definitely this way. Come on."


	11. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten 

"How long do you suppose they'll be searching for us?"

"I cannot say," said Alendar. "Lady Victoria, you are tired. You need rest and food..."

"I need to get back to the TARDIS."

"Tomorrow we can try to get past them."

"Oh, tomorrow," said Victoria angrily. "My only friends in the world have been captured by a lot of mysterious soldiers, and we have to wait till tomorrow." After a moment she added, "And you don't have to call me Lady anymore, I'm just Victoria."

The guards nodded politely. They had never been less than polite.

The hoverboat was resting about an inch above the lake's surface, under a shelf of rock that effectively hid it from anyone in the vicinity of the palace. There was a nice view of the lake, and the city on the hill in the distance.

Victoria folded her arms and glared out at the reflected sunset on the water. "Who are all those soldiers, anyway?"

Alendar, the unofficial answer man, gave her a short summary of the death of the Emperor and the Regent's treachery. "The soldiers in brown have been in the garden ever since. We can't figure out where they come from, or why they are here of all places."

The sun was slipping past the horizon. It was less than two days now before the TARDIS was due to appear on the barren landscape of the future Efes. Victoria fidgeted. Then she thought of something else.

"Alendar, do the soldiers stay out all night?"

Alendar looked pensive. "Yes. But there is a change of the guard, at around eight..."

Gamra turned to him. "Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting? It will be difficult."

"But possible."

"I should have said difficult if not impossible. And how should we get her out again if the alarm is raised?"

"I'll be safe in the TARDIS," broke in Victoria. "All I've got to do is get in, and you can leave if you want to. And the Doctor said the book was essential."

"The TARDIS is no doubt heavily guarded by now," objected Gamra. "Even if we manage to get there what good would it do?"

"Nothing," said Alendar, his eyes glinting with mischief. "Without the proper diversion."

-

An hour or so after the escape, a soldier came to relieve the prison guard. He rounded the corner whistling, and the whistle died away as he saw the open doors, the abandoned handcuffs, and the unconscious guard.

General Sode was not pleased. When Tellisn came before him, mostly recovered from Cerf's stun, the General had not just forgotten why he had ordered Tellisn's arrest. He had forgotten that it had happened at all. He had only one thing to say to the subcommander.

"_Find them_."

-

It was indeed difficult to avoid all the soldiers in the Emperor's garden, but it was not impossible. By two minutes to eight, as minutes are reckoned on Efes, Victoria was peering over the top of a large boulder, watching the platoon of soldiers in the vicinity of the TARDIS. It was difficult to tell in the dark, but they seemed tired and bored. Understandable; it was the end of their watch, and they weren't expecting anything to happen.

That was when something happened. The little red hoverboat came overhead with a loud roaring noise, as if Alendar were gunning the engines. A sharp spotlight focused on a brown-uniformed soldier hiding behind another boulder and Gamra's voice rang out over some sort of speaker system.

"_Drop your weapon and put your hands above your head! You are completely surrounded! Do not move! Resistance is useless! Surrender now!_"

The spy fired a brief burst of flame at the hoverboat and fled the scene, chased by seven thoroughly astonished guards. As the hoverboat's spotlight followed them, Victoria ran across the grass to the TARDIS and flattened herself against its back. She peeked around the corner; the path seemed deserted, so she slid over to the doors. She had just turned the key when some more soldiers, evidently the relief guard, came running up the path

Very, very quietly, Victoria slid one of the doors open. Halfway, it creaked.

The lead soldier immediately shone his flashlight on the TARDIS. "Hey! You there, stop!" Victoria ducked inside, seconds ahead of the soldier, and slammed the door shut. The guard rattled the handle, and then started pounding. "Open up!"

Inside, Victoria watched the man on the viewscreen turn to another guard and say, "Go to stores and get a crowbar." She wasn't worried. Despite the fragile outward appearance of the TARDIS, nothing could get in once the doors were locked and the force field on.

There was more shooting.

She found the control for the viewscreen and turned it toward the last location of the hoverboat. There – way off at the peak of the hill, the little hoverboat was surrounded by six bigger craft, being herded down to the castle.


	12. Chapter Eleven

**Chapter Eleven**

"You're sure?"

"Oh, quite. It's the most out-of-the-way place I know."

The dust was thick this deep in the Labyrinth. Several twists and turns earlier, the ribbed floor had given way to solid stone; the treaty under which Krakor and Vanussia had worked together to renovate the tunnels and other historic landmarks had been abandoned, according to Cerf, as soon as it had become clear that it wasn't doing any good.

"Do we have to go down that tunnel, Doctor?" said Jamie. "Look, it's all dark in there."

Cerf nodded. "There won't be any more lights after this," he said. "I'm surprised the ones we did install are still working. Do any of you happen to have a flashlight?"

"I have a small one," said the Doctor, producing a tiny penlight, "but I doubt it would do any good by itself."

"Dark is better," said Elfik. "They'll be looking for us by now."

"Aye," said Jamie, "but what if we fall down some great hole in there?"

"Here's the answer!" said the Doctor triumphantly, pulling an ancient torch out of a wall slot.

Cerf looked at the torch. It was a spike of wood about two feet long, smooth and shiny, and the flame end was stained dark. "Very nice," he said, intrigued. "And how do we light it?"

"With my penlight," said the Doctor. "Now, observe." He pulled a huge magnifying glass from his pocket and focused the wavering beam of his little penlight into a tiny star on the head of the torch. Jamie watched, grinning. The Doctor always carried matches, but it was just like him to forget about them at times like this so he could mess around with light beams and lenses and whatever else he happened to have in his pockets.

The magnifying glass was clearly much more powerful than it looked. After a moment a wisp of smoke curled up, and then there was a small flame. It grew into a good-sized white light.

"There, Your Highness: your ancestors were very civilized during their time. Chemical flame, twice the light of an ordinary torch, practically smokeless, and it doesn't use up that much oxygen either."

"And we can pick more up on the way!" said Cerf delightedly. "Is it far to this cave of yours?"

"Not too far now," said the Doctor, leading them off into the blackness.

**o0o**

..._were found, and it was given out that the entire royal family had perished in the blaze. Hron, now Emperor by default, launched an inquiry into the cause of the fire, but the investigation was halfhearted and soon dropped._

_Within a day, the Krakod Thane inscribed a proclamation expressing grief at the tragedy. Hron did not respond to the message, and, with few preliminaries, announced the voiding of the Port Merac Treaty and the annexation of the Ten Thousand Islands_...

Victoria yawned as she put the book down. She leaned back in the antique chair in the control room, but as soon as she closed her eyes the whole impossible situation came back full force.

There was still a squad of guards outside the TARDIS. They had tried a crowbar, a blowtorch, several electronic lockpicks, and a small hand grenade, with no success. There had been no word or sign of the Doctor or Jamie, and there was no way of knowing what had become of the two friendly soldiers. Victoria herself was practically a prisoner; not an uncomfortable one, being that she was in the TARDIS, but it's the principle of the thing that counts. Volume Two of the Story of the Dragon Day Treaty was nowhere to be found, and to top the whole thing off, the planet was due to be destroyed sometime during the next day.

She stood, stretched, and looked up at the viewscreen, suddenly realizing that the activity outside had stopped some time ago. For a moment she had a wild hope that the guards had all gone away, but no; there they were, sitting on the rocks, backlit by two and a half moons and half the galaxy scattered faintly across the sky. Most of their faces were in shadow, but it was clear that they were watching the doors very carefully.

"Come on," she muttered, more to the TARDIS than anyone else, "don't they ever get tired?"

The TARDIS, as usual, declined to respond.

"I've got to get this to the Doctor somehow," said Victoria, picking up the book again. The gold lettering glinted under the soft light. "He said it was essential." She looked at the console. "Oh, why am I talking to you, anyway? It's not as if you'll answer."

A bright light started flashing on the console. Then a quiet, urgent beeping sound came from somewhere overhead.

"What–?" said Victoria, and then let out a little scream as the floor tilted. She grabbed onto the edge of the console as the TARDIS jolted and shook, and then swayed from side to side as if dangling in midair. Then there was a tremendous _thud_.

There was noise outside now, a lot of noise. Victoria looked at the viewscreen. The guards had loaded the TARDIS onto a freight hovercraft and it was in the air, heading for the palace.

**o0o**

It wasn't exactly a room, but neither could it be called a cave: half round, with one flat wall, rough from chiseling, and faded pictures of beasts from Efes's stone age around the perimeter. There was a shelf along the wall, at about chair height, and wall slots held the one lit torch and the two others that they had saved for later use.

"I still think you should have woken me up to watch," grumbled Cerf.

Kapik's eyes twinkled. "It's the death penalty, it is, for disturbing the eminent slumber of the Sovereign Emperor of Vanussia," she said in a hollow tone.

"It is not!" said Cerf.

"Besides," Jamie said seriously, "we tried, but it was no use. You were flat out."

"Hmf," said Cerf, disgusted.

The Doctor came over from where he had been studying the cave paintings. "Your Highness," he said, "something's been bothering me for some time now, and I've just put my finger on what it is. How did you guess that Jamie was alien to your planet?"

Cerf looked abashed. "Well, he was just... the way he was acting, the way he looked. Different. Alien, you know."

The Doctor looked at Jamie. "Yes, I see, it's rather obvious, isn't it?" he said, in mock seriousness. "Say now!" said Jamie sharply. The Doctor gave him a reassuring smile and continued, "But where did you get the idea that he's from outer space, of all places?"

"It was really Elfik who suggested it," admitted Cerf.

The Doctor looked at the astronomers, who looked at each other. Kapik's voice echoed a little as she spoke for her sister.

"Our Tenek Eighteen satellite recorded an incoming object. Its size and spectrum indicated something created by intelligent beings, and when the Prince told us about Jamie, we naturally assumed..." She shrugged.

The Doctor frowned. "That's strange. My TARDIS shouldn't register like that."

"Wait a moment. You're saying that the thing we were tracking wasn't your ship?"

"Yes. This is most disturbing. Your Highness, I suggest we try to get back to my TARDIS as soon as possible."

"I thought that was the general idea," said Cerf. "What's so urgent all of a sudden?"

"Well," said the Doctor, "whatever their sensors picked up, it wasn't _my_ ship. Perhaps we can use the TARDIS sensors to find out if it's a ship at all, and if so, whose is it."

"All right," said Cerf. "You seem to know the caves better than any of us. Do you know a way out that doesn't lead to the big cavern?"

"Yes, the way I sent Victoria. That's this way."

They followed the Doctor through twists and turns until they got to a well-lit passage with a rubber floor. Cerf went back a few yards, extinguished the faithful torch and left it in a wall slot where it wouldn't be noticed.

Once they were almost spotted by a squad of guards whose leader was giving them you go that way, I'll go this way,' instructions. After that, they proceeded very carefully, and successfully avoided several more patrols.

Eventually they came upon a red streak carved into the wall. The Doctor explained that the streak had been made by explorers hundreds of years before, to show the way out of the Labyrinth. "Fortunately," he said, "your renovation crew didn't bother to erase them."

"There's a line like that coming out of a crack in the back of my cave in the garden," said Cerf.

"Oh, is that the cave overlooking the path on the west side of the palace?" said the Doctor.

Cerf nodded.

"Splendid!" The Doctor rubbed his hands together. "That's right where this tunnel ends off!" He ducked out of sight, and the others went after him.

It was a tight squeeze at the last, but everybody made it. "Here we are," said the Doctor, brushing off his coat. Bright morning sunlight was streaming in the mouth of the cave. "My, my, what a nice place you have here."

Cerf looked around. "The hoverboat's gone," he said uneasily, pulling out his needler. "Your missing girl wouldn't have been able to fly one of those, would she?"

"Of course not," said Jamie. "And anyway, Victoria wouldna done anythin' like that."

Elfik was examining the bushes at the mouth of the cave. "Went out not long ago," she said in her clipped manner. "Fast, too. We're not safe here."

"Brilliant observation," said a voice from a corner.

Everybody looked around.

"Oh, not again," said the Doctor, rolling his eyes upward in frustration.

-----


	13. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve**

"There it is, sir."

"Well, what did you bring it in here for?"

Victoria watched the scene through the viewscreen. It had taken the soldiers most of the rest of the night to move the TARDIS to – where else? – the royal dungeons. Now it was locked in a cell, and the tired soldier who had coordinated the operation was reporting to someone in a fancy red-and-gold robe, complete with cape.

"There's someone in it, Lord Regent."

"Then why didn't you get him _out_?" The Regent's voice was dangerously soft. His hair, once black, was bleached grayish, and his eyes were red-rimmed and piercing.

"Her, sir. I'm pretty sure it's a girl." The soldier looked frustrated. "We tried everything in the book, and a few things out of it, and we couldn't crack it. Not even a dent. I can't imagine what's banged it up like this."

"Why is it in here?"

"Easier to guard here, sir."

"Blaid, Blaid, Blaid. Must I do all the thinking?" The Regent pressed a hand to his head, as if it was aching. "It's clearly a bomb or some other nefarious device designed to destroy the palace of the Emperor. Probably Krakod in origin – this writing is foreign, anyway. Have it taken out to the sand plains and destroyed."

_No_, Victoria thought.

"But what about the girl?" said the soldier.

"The thing's probably got a transmat in it," said the Regent. "She'll be long gone. Have it blown up."

The soldier shook his head. "We tried small explosives on the lock before, sir," he said. "Not a scratch. The skin's a lot tougher than it looks."

"Find a way to destroy it!" exploded the Regent. "I picked you for your brains! Now use them!"

The soldier stood stiffly. "Yes sir."

The Regent calmed down as quickly as he had blown up. He put a fatherly hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Look, I know it's difficult. I probably impress you as a paranoid authoritarian, don't I?"

The soldier did not respond.

"It's difficult, so soon after the tragedy. We have to work together, rebuild the public trust. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

The Regent left.

The soldier relaxed and sighed in relief. Then he looked at the police box, safely locked in the cell. He stepped over to the wall and struck a small gong. Another soldier came down the steps. "Blaid?"

"Get that big boat back here," said the first soldier wearily. "We're to take it out to the sand plains and destroy it."

"Fire, and we spent all night getting it in here," groaned the guard.

"What can I say? Regent's orders."

"Regent. Ha. I think he's–"

"Don't even say it. Get." The guard went up the steps and, with a last puzzled look at the TARDIS, the first soldier turned to follow him.

Victoria knew she had to time it very carefully. Just as the soldier out his foot on the first step, she twisted a control that she had seen the Doctor use several times before. "Hello?" she said tentatively. "Hello out there?"

**o0o**

"Back against the wall."

"Oh, certainly. Come on, we'd better do as he says." The Doctor backed up against the wall, and his companions reluctantly followed suit.

They stood in a ragged line and looked at their captor. "What now?" said Cerf quietly.

"Now we talk!" said the Doctor. He looked at the young Krakod. "When last we met, you were pretending you didn't understand my language. What's your name?"

"Auburning," said the Krakod automatically, and then bit his tongue. "Now be quiet."

"Certainly, certainly," said the Doctor. "This is quite an occasion. We don't often get captured by people with hats, you know. At least, not before yesterday." With that apparent _non sequitor_, he pulled out his recorder and started playing _Twinkle Twinkle Little Star_. The blue-green tassels tied to the end danced about.

Auburning's eyes went wide. "Where did you get those?"

"What? Oh, you would notice these, wouldn't you," said the Doctor, looking down at the tassels as if just realizing they were there. "The same place you got them, I expect." His head came up again and he gave the young soldier a penetrating stare. "And I outrank you by at least one degree."

Auburning slapped his forehead. "That's how you understood the Island code we were using in the tunnels. Why didn't you show us then?"

"Wait a minute," said Cerf. "What is this?"

"Well, I wanted to see what you were up to," said the Doctor to Auburning. "And I did. Major Hefuheo won't be pleased."

"You're from Krakor?" Auburning was getting more confused by the minute.

"What?" yelled Cerf. "You traitor!" He lunged at the Doctor. Jamie caught his arms and held him back. "Cool off," he whispered, "can't you see it's all a trick?"

"Don't look it, do I?" said the Doctor, sounding pleased with himself. "Of course you'll have to take me straight to the General and check my story." He stepped forward, suddenly impatient. "Well? Come on then."

Auburning backed away. "You know the others are still prisoners?" he said.

"Of course. Not this one, though–" indicating Jamie – "he's my assistant. Come along, man, where's the General?"

Jamie winked at the Prince. One by one, they filed out of the cave.

**o0o**

From the soldier's perspective, Victoria's voice seemed to come out of thin air. "Hello? Hello out there?"

The Vanussian stared at the TARDIS. Then he looked up the stairs, debating whether to call the other guard back or not. Victoria held her breath, but the soldier ran over to the bars of the cage. "Who's that? Come out with your hands up!"

"It's me. You saw me run in, and then I was too scared to come out, but now somebody's telling you to blow me up and you can't, can you? I mean, you wouldn't do that?" Victoria pitched her voice high and frightened. "I don't want to be blown up. There's something awfully strange in here. I think it's alive. Can you come in and see?" Holding her breath, she opened the doors.

"Come on out, miss," said the soldier, setting his blaster to stun. "I won't hurt you."

Victoria, who could see perfectly well what he was doing, said, "I can't get out. It's in the way. Ohh, hurry, it's moving!"

The guard opened the cell and came cautiously in. What harm could it do? The box was too small for the girl to put up much of a fight.

Victoria screamed. "It's got me!"

The soldier ran inside and stopped short, gaping at the sight of the huge gleaming control room. Victoria came out from behind one of the doors and hit him on the head as hard as she could with the piece of metal they had found on the future Efes.

There was a somber bonnnggg, reverberating around the room.

The soldier crumpled. Victoria stepped back, breathing hard, and then gasped as the metal crumbled away to nothing in her hands, its existence vindicated and its purpose fulfilled.

She grabbed the book, put the TARDIS key in her pocket and set about dragging the fallen soldier back outside. More guards would probably show up soon, and she didn't want to be there.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen**

As he cleared the bushes Cerf stared at the pageant in front of them. "Of course," he murmered. "I forgot, it's Dragon Day."

The Doctor and the others looked down at the display in surprise and some delight. A parade wound down the path. Giant dragon-shaped balloons bobbed and bounced in the light breeze. Vanussians danced and whirled, juggled torches and played wild music. Jamie brightened considerably at the sight of a fancy instrument that looked like a bagpipe, and then he noticed what wasn't in the valley.

"Hey," he said, "where's the TARDIS?"

"Yes," said the Doctor, turning to Auburning. "Where's that blue box that was here yesterday?"

Auburning shrugged. "There was a lot of to-do over the thing last night," he said. "Rumor's that it's been taken to the dungeons, out of the way of the parade, and there's someone inside it."

Ah," said the Doctor. "That'll be Victoria. I'm glad she made it." He thought for a moment, and suggested, "Why not bring my assistant down to examine the thing? I'm perfectly capable of taking the others to the General myself."

An older, more experienced soldier -- or even one who had read more spy novels -- would have seen right through the trick, but Auburning nodded defeatedly. "Yes sir. He's in his office, up in the second tower."

"I, ah, am not armed..." said the Doctor apologetically. Auburning handed him Cerf's needler.

"Thank you, Lieutenant; that was good thinking." The Doctor flourished his recorder and its tassels. "I'll certainly commend you to the General."

Auburning saluted unhappily and marched off with Jamie trailing behind.

The Doctor waited until Auburning was a good distance away and turned to Elfik, Kapik and Cerf, holding up the needler. "Right then, quick march." His next words were very quiet, for their ears alone. "We do have to keep up appearances, you know."

**o0o**

Victoria ran up the steps and found herself in a wide hall. She ducked behind a weird suit of armor as two soldiers marched past. For better or for worse, her path back to the TARDIS was closed.

There was another set of stairs on the other side of the hall, and she moved closer to it, ducking into corners and behind pillars every few moments to listen for footsteps. The book was heavy in her hand.

There was a voice on the stairs. She hid behind a handy tapestry, her heart hammering.

**o0o**

When they were safely inside the palace and out of reach of prying eyes, the Doctor turned to Cerf. "Here, you can take this back now," he said. "I abhor weapons myself."

Cerf accepted the needler and decided to trust the Doctor. "Look," he asked, "if you're not with them, how did you know how to bluff that guard?"

"Well, you might say I had priviliged information," said the Doctor with a mysterious smile. "But that is neither here nor there." Then he turned to Elfik and Kapik. "Where do you keep the data from your satellites and probes?"

"Hron had them all moved the day we were jailed," said Kapik

"West turret. I know exactly where," said Elfik.

"Can we go get them?" said Kapik.

"Yes. Quick as you can. Meet us in the other turret." The two astronomers hurried off down the great hall and the Doctor and Cerf went in the other direction.

"This turret was my father's study," said Cerf. He led the Doctor up a spiral staircase and to a polished wooden door. "But what's Sode doing in the palace?"

"I have a bit of an idea about that," said the Doctor. "Now, is that door soundproofed?"

"No, there was never a need. There always used to be guards at the bottom of the stairs."

"Good. You can stay out here and listen in."

"Now wait a minute--"

"Your Highness, someone has to guard the door. It seems to be a universal fact that evil commanders think a good deal of their own skins, and even if there's no one watching the staircase now, there will probably be soon. Besides, our general will probably talk more freely if he thinks I came alone."

Cerf held his needler tightly. "All right."

**o0o**

"I still don't trust you, you know," said the voice coming down the stairs. "Just because the Doctor's an officer..." Victoria peeked out and saw a figure with a blaster herding another figure ahead of him.

Jamie. And the other was the junior guard who had held her and the Doctor in the catacombs.

Auburning nudged Jamie with the blaster. "Down the stairs." Jamie took the first step, glaring back at his captor. Then the soldier heard someone calling faintly. "Ja-miee!" He turned, pointing the blaster, and Jamie grabbed his boot and pulled up. Auburning flew over backwards, and Victoria ran up behind him and hit him with the book.

"Victoria!" shouted Jamie. His voice echoed crazily, startling them both, and he continued in a half-whisper. "I'm not half glad to see you. Where were you?"

"In the TARDIS, mostly. I'm all right. Have you seen the Doctor?"

"Aye, he's upstairs. He sent me down to get you."

"Well, let's go then! Which way?"

"Up that way, I think." They raced for the stairs. Then there was a noise behind them. They backed up against a tapestry.

Auburning had stood up and was shambling towards the other stairs. He moved stiffly, and didn't seem to notice the two fugitives at all. He stumbled up the stairs and was gone.

"What was that all about?" said Victoria.

"I've no idea," said Jamie. "Let's go before he sets off the alarm."

They went.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**Chapter Fourteen**

The Doctor walked boldly through the door. The late Emperor's private study was spacious and airy, lined with bookcases and cabinets. A dark wooden desk stood at an angle, with a swivel chair near the balcony curtains. There was a large viewscreen, the latest model, set in one wall. It was a neat, sensible office, made to be used, and only incidentally belonging to the most powerful man on the continent.

The room appeared to be empty.

The Doctor stood in the middle of the room, all his senses tingling. There was no sound or movement. Staring straight ahead, the Doctor said, "Come out, Sode."

Nothing changed. The Doctor's voice became sharp. "General Eckers Sode Sodos, come out and face the music!"

A shadow to his right blurred. Sode, resplendent in the finery of the Regent of Vanussia, stepped out of an illusion of wall, a ready crossbow on his arm. Phestan holography, the Doctor remembered, was second only to its antigraviational engineering.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Sode didn't wait for the Doctor to answer. "A spy. Some sort of spy. They all are." He walked around the Doctor, inspecting him as one might inspect a new hovercraft. "An enemy agent. Come to try and ruin everything, eh? Well, you're too late. It won't work. Do you realize I could have a hundred men in here with one shout? Two hundred?"

"I hardly think the room is big enough for that many," said the Doctor. "Now listen to me. You've got to have the Vanussian army stand down."

**o0o**

Cerf crouched outside the door, listening. _Sode_? he thought.

**o0o**

"What do you know about the Vanussian army?" said Sode.

"No more than I know about the Krakod army," said the Doctor. "And a certain Major Hefuheo, secretary of defense to the Krakod Thane. And the secret militias hidden beneath the crusts of both continents, and the wanton destruction of national landmarks and preserves to make room for all the guerilla soldiers someone's been importing from the Islands. Oh, you've been busy, haven't you?"

**o0o**

Cerf's face twisted into a snarl as he listened. He put his hand on the doorknob.

There were running footsteps from the stairs. Someone was coming up. Cerf ducked into a handy corner, pulling out his needler.

**o0o**

"...and the new friend is left in a position that could save him a lot of trouble, but only until the Prince is legally old enough to take over. Remember, we're speaking hypothetically. Unfortunately the Prince is hardy of character and idea, and doesn't like his old tutor anyway. The boy's coming-of-age is soon, and with little time to spare--" by now the Doctor was almost quoting by heart -- "the tutor realizes that the Prince is somehow resistant to telepathic control..."

"As are you, Doctor, somehow," growled Sode. "We cannot sense your presence at all. How do you do that?"

"Oh, I have a knack," said the Doctor modestly. Then he caught the plural. "What do you mean we?"

"I don't like mysteries," said Sode. He fingered the crossbow, which he had placed on the desk. "But why would this hypothetical friend of the Emperor's want to control Vanussia?"

"For the same reason he wanted to control Krakor," said the Doctor. "For the same reason he armed the people of the Ten Thousand Islands, who had been peaceful for centuries--"

Sode exploded. "And how long would my peaceful people have lasted when the great powers were through with it, if I hadn't taken charge?"

"Listen to me, Sode," said the Doctor urgently. "It's not too late. Declare the Islands independent. The Thane won't argue--"

"No! I grew up never knowing whether the enemy was to the west or to the east, and I found it was both. Krakor and Vanussia have been fighting over the Ten Thousand like two dragons over a scrap of meat." Sode laughed dreadfully. "After the dragons tear each other apart, my shade will rise from the ashes and create a lasting peace!"

"Rubbish! Will you let me finish a sentence?" The Doctor was also getting angry. "You can't force peace with a lot of armed storm troopers! There are more people on the Continents than on the Islands, you know. You won't be able to hold them all for long!" There was a slight movement outside the door. Was Cerf hearing all this?

"The bombs will stop them, Doctor. They will blame each other for the Chip's destruction and wipe each other out. There can be no revolt for centuries. There will be peace at last."

"Don't you understand?" shouted the Doctor. "Those bombs are going to destroy the planet! There will be nothing left for you to take over! Nothing!"

"Better to rule a wasteland than be ruled by faceless strangers!" Sode picked up the crossbow. The Doctor glanced around, but there was nowhere to hide. Then, as the Islander took aim, a tall form broke like a wraith from the shadows and stood in the way, shielding the Doctor. "No," he said. "This has ended, Sode."

The Doctor's eyes widened in recognition. "Tellisn!" he cried. "Get out of the way, there's no use reasoning with this maniac!"

Sode stared, popeyed. His voice cracked with incredulity. "Get back, fool!"

"No," said Tellisn simply, and launched himself at the Islander. The crossbow twanged and went flying across the room as Tellisn hit Sode like a ton of bricks, twisted, and threw him over his shoulder and straight into Cerf, Alendar and Gamra, who had just run in through the door. They all went down like bowling pins. The enraged Sode struggled wildly and thrashed forward, but Cerf tackled him, and the Guards beat him unconscious.

Cerf stood, breathing hard, and stared down at the face of the man who had killed his family. "Hron, my father's friend," he said sadly. "My father trusted Hron with his life. He couldn't figure out why I didn't."

There was a noise. Tellisn had slumped against the wall, clutching his side.

The Doctor raced over to him. "It's an arrow," he said angrily. "Sit down, Tellisn, steady does it. We'll need to cut away the uniform around the arrow to get it out. Does anybody have a knife?" As one the Royal Guards drew and offered their huge sabers. "No, no, no! Don't you have anything smaller?"

Cerf had gotten a fancy pair of scissors out of a drawer. "He quoted my father twice," he said, as the Doctor started cutting away the tangled fabric, "and he helped us in the tunnels, and now this. How did you know his name? Who is he?"

"A patriot, Your Highness," said the Doctor.


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**Chapter Fifteen**

Jamie and Victoria turned a corner and almost ran into another suit of armor. Cool wind blew down the staircase next to it. "Come on!" cried Jamie. "This way, and then up to the top of the tower, that's what the Doctor said."

"He's really all right?" said Victoria, for the third time.

"Look, I keep telling you, it takes a lot more than an army to stop the Doctor..." He slowed down as they got to the landing in the big hall. "What's all that commotion out there?"

They moved cautiously over to the outer door and opened it a bit.

After a moment they closed it. Victoria's voice was shaky. "A lot more than an army, you said?"

A loud blast shook the door. "Come on, let's get out of here," said Jamie. They raced up the stairs.

The next landing was in the middle of a hallway. At each end was a staircase going up. "Which way do we go?" said Victoria. "It looks like each way leads to a different tower."

There was a clatter on the right staircase. "Shhh, someone's coming down!" Jamie pulled Victoria back into the stairwell, wishing he had his dagger, and peeked around the corner.

"Jamie!" called two voices at the same time.

"It's all right," said Jamie, relieved. "It's Elfik and Kapik."

"Jamie!" The faces of the scientists were flushed with victory and their hands were full of discs, hand screens, and printouts. They spoke excitedly, almost simultaneously, interrupting each other with every second word.

"We got everything, all the data on the continent--"

"And we developed the latest transmissions from the Tenek satellites and everything--"

"Oh, is that Victoria? Hello, I'm Elfik and this is my sister Kapik--"

"--what happened to your guard?"

"He ran out as if he was possessed or something. Victoria, these are Kapik and Elfik, the royal astronomers."

"Hello."

"Hello! I see you got the book."

"Yes... hadn't we better go up now and find the Doctor?"

"Right, come on then." They all ran up the left staircase.

**o0o**

"Now, if I'm right," said the Doctor, tying the last of the bandages tight, "you can go into a healing coma and have that fixed in a few hours."

Tellisn stared up at him. "How did you know that?"

"Tut, I saw you throw Sode. That was classic, just classic." He smiled mischievously. "You'll have to teach me how sometime. What degree are you... so far?"

"Gray."

"Oh my, that's impressive. The healing trance should come easy for you then -- where's it taught, third level?"

"The healing trance will be useless here. I am sorry, Highness, but it would be foolish to put myself into a trance here where there is danger..." His voice was growing weaker.

The Doctor stood up. "Well," he said briskly, "I think I may have a suggestion."

**o0o**

Halfway down the stairs they met another party coming up. The Doctor's face lit up. "Jamie! And Victoria!"

"Oh, Doctor, you're all right!"

"A' told ye so," muttered Jamie, but he grinned as Victoria hugged the Doctor, and displayed her book like a child showing off a crayoned scribble. Kapik and Elfik came up behind her, trying to put their papers in order.

Gamra and Alendar trailed behind, half dragging a semiconscious Sode. His hands were tied behind him with the last of the bandages. "Hey," said Jamie, "what's he doin' here?"

"He's Hron," said Cerf grimly. "I told you about him. I'm taking him down to the dungeons, and then I'll call the Thane. We have a lot to talk about."

Victoria noticed the two guards. "Thank you for your help before. How did you escape?"

"We were being held in a room here," said Gamra, sounding faintly puzzled, "when our guards simply deserted us, and left the door unlocked."

"That's what happened to my guard!" said Jamie. "There's something awfully funny going on here."

The Doctor was lost in thought, examining Elfik and Kapik's calculations. "Yes... that's the anomaly, is it? Here, and again here..."

"That's what we were worried about," said Elfik. "But as soon as the Emperor died our funding was stopped and we were forbidden to use our instruments. Then, when we were put in the cells--"

"I see," muttered the Doctor. "But why would Sode suspend your research?"

Suddenly Tellisn jumped. "Sode's--" But it was too late. Sode snapped the bandages like wet spiderweb, wrenched free from Cerf and Gamra, hurled himself at the nearest window and was gone in a shattering of glass.


	17. Chapter Sixteen

**Chapter Sixteen**

Everyone rushed to the window and looked out. Far below, on the open road next to the wall, the dragon parade was in chaos. Khakied soldiers were pouring out of Cerf's cave and the civilians were panicking.

Most of the view, however, was obscured by the largest float in the parade, a dragon balloon the size of a house, scaled and horned and painted in metallic greens and blues and reds. It had drifted close to the window in the fracas, and Sode had managed to land on it. He was climbing up one of the plastic horns on the head, close to the eye.

"Well, come on," shouted the Doctor, "we've got to stop him!" There was a desperate run down three levels and into the great hall with the double doors. Three of Sode's guards were there, but Cerf had his needler out and stunned them almost before they saw him. Gamra and Alendar wrenched half the door open and they saw the dragon balloon hovering above them, with Sode working his way around a wing and towards one of the ropes holding the beast in place.

"Very good," muttered the Doctor. "We have a few minutes yet." Suddenly Tellisn sagged against the wall. "Victoria," said the Doctor, "can you get Tellisn and the scientists back to the TARDIS?"

"But Doctor--"

"We've got to catch Sode before he does any more harm," said Cerf. "You women would only be in the way."

Elfik was concentrating on keeping her pile of information off the floor, but Kapik bristled, and Jamie slapped his forehead, miming despair. "Och, you're in trouble now, Highness," he muttered.

Victoria drew herself up indignantly. "That does it. I'm staying right here with you!"

The Doctor handed her the book. "Now, Victoria, listen," he said. "It's very important that Tellisn gets to the TARDIS, and you have the key. It's the only place they'll be safe."

"Oh, all right," said Victoria grumpily. "Come on, it's this way." She led the scientists down the stairs, and Tellisn limped along behind.

**o0o**

Cerf led the others outside. Sode had left the rope by the wing and was making his way out toward the rope on the tail.

"Give up, Sode!" shouted Cerf. "You haven't got a chance!"

Sode climbed faster.

"What does he think he's doing?" muttered Cerf. "If he slides down the rope we've got him, and if he stays up there--"

Sode had reached the rope. Silver gleamed in his hand.

"Hey, that's my dagger!" cried Jamie. "Look out, he's cutting the rope!"

The rope broke and curled down to the ground. There was a multiple snapping sound as the other ropes, probably sawed half through already, parted under the strain. The balloon pitched wildly as it rose into the air, and Sode lost his hold, slid down the side of the beast flailing his arms desperately, and caught a trailing end of rope barely soon enough to save his life. A great gust of wind blew the balloon higher.

"Gamra," snapped Cerf. "Where's the boat?"

"Impounded," said Gamra. "But your father's jet is still in the hangar."

"Let's go," said Cerf, and set off at a dead run for a small door in the castle wall.

"Jet?" said Jamie in confusion, remembering the time the TARDIS had materialized on a runway in Gatwick Airport in 1966, and the runway had been in use. Then, realizing he was being left behind, he ran to catch up.

Inside was a giant room with two big doors on the side and the royal hoverjet on a landing pad in the middle. Alendar was already in the pilot's seat and the craft was revving up.

"Everybody in!" shouted Cerf, his voice echoing in the hangar. "Gamra, get the big doors open!"

The hoverjet's deck was large enough for ten people to stand comfortably, with safety fences about a meter tall and copper benches around the sides, and a small control panel near the pilot's cabin. "Jamie," said Cerf, "you stand by the controls. The red button activates the pressure shields. Press it as soon as we're out of the hangar bay."

In front of the hoverboat the hangar doors were slowly sliding open. Gamra scrambled over the side, and Cerf said, "Whenever you're ready, Alendar."

Alendar grabbed the steering stick, looked over his shoulder and grinned a manic pilot's grin. "Hold tight, everyone, here we go!"

**o0o**

The soldier Victoria had knocked out was gone and the door to the cell was hanging open. Tellisn leaned against the TARDIS, breathing weakly as Victoria fumbled with the key.

"You don't expect us all to get in there, do you?" said Kapik.

"Actually, I do," said Victoria briskly. "It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."

The two scientists exchanged glances. Victoria finally got the key to turn and pushed the doors open. "Well, come on," she said. "Let's get Tellisn inside."

"I... can walk," said Tellisn, managing to stand straight. He followed Victoria into the TARDIS. Elfik and Kapik exchanged reluctant glances, and went in after them.

It was indeed bigger inside than out. The two astronomers looked around in amazement as Victoria led Tellisn to an antique chair in a corner of the console room.

Elfik found her voice first. "Incredible. How does it work?"

"The Doctor only says it's dimensionally transcendental," said Victoria. "All I know is that it works." Giggling, she added, "Oh, don't touch any of the controls, all right? You could send us off to who knows where."

She went over to the food machine in the corner and dialed up a hot drink for Tellisn. He took it gratefully. "Victoria," he said, "if there's time, I'll have to sleep."

"That's all right," said Victoria. "Go right ahead. I hope you feel better." Tellisn handed her his empty cup, leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. Victoria went back to the food machine. "Tea, anyone?"

Kapik suddenly looked down at the papers in her hands. "I don't believe it," she said. "I left all the spectrophotographs behind. Victoria, can you open the doors?"

"Those aren't necessary for confirmation," said Elfik worriedly. "We've already got the radar data."

"They're useful for size and elemental makeup, and necessary for plotting a course."

"Will we need to plot a course?"

"We might. Besides," laughed Kapik, "you know how I am about having everything complete. I can run up and get the papers and be back down before you know it."

"Are you sure?" asked Victoria. "It might be dangerous, with all those soldiers out there."

"I'll go with you," said Elfik suddenly. "We'll be all right together."

"Well, all right," said Victoria. "But I still don't think it's a good idea." She went to the console and turned the knob that opened the doors. "Be careful now!"

Outside, Kapik winced and steadied herself against the TARDIS. "Kapik?" said her sister. "Are you all right?"

She shook her head. "It's nothing, just my headache coming back. I'm fine."

"Come to think of it," admitted Elfik, "I'm getting a headache too. Must be the altitude, after all that time down in the cells." They went up the stairs, still talking, while Victoria watched them on the scanner and muttered, "Stuck in here again."

-----


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**Chapter Seventeen**

The balloon was growing steadily above them now, but Alendar was having some trouble keeping the hoverboat on a straight line. A particularly violent gust of wind knocked everyone off their feet for the third time, and the Doctor shouted, "Steady on!"

"Sorry," called Alendar. "It's the jet stream, you know. Can't get away from it." There was another jolt, harder this time. The Jamie cried, "I see him! I see him!"

"Where?" said Cerf.

"There," said Jamie, pointing up through the transparent wind shields. "He must've tied himself to the balloon, or he would've blown off." The tiny figure swung and kicked beneath the dragon balloon like a spider in a gale.

"Get ready to open the top," said Cerf. "Just a little, Jamie, so he can fall in."

Behind the cockpit, the Doctor was back-seat driving. "Higher now, yes, that's it... a little more to the right, no, no, the other right..."

Cerf opened a long trunk in the side of the deck and brought out a pair of copper handcuffs, a huge padlock, a long rattling chain, and a battery-operated megaphone.

"What's that for?" said Jamie, indicating the latter item. Cerf winked at him. "Just wait and see. I've always wanted to do this." He watched the tiny Sode with the expression of a stalking cat.

"Hold it there, Alendar!" shouted the Doctor suddenly. "Jamie, open the top!"

Jamie pressed the button and the shields opened halfway. A wall of icy wind hit, making them all stagger. Cerf raised the megaphone. "Let go, Hron! Cut yourself loose! There's no way you'd survive if the balloon popped!"

**---**

"I've got a blip, Seven."

"That's what we're here for. What is it?"

"I can't tell. "It's... wait, it's coming at us from below... contact." Forty-Two looked up at Seven, relieved. "It's only a giant balloon that must have escaped from the parade down there."

Seven manipulated the image, adjusted it to seek heat, and pointed. "What's that?"

"Good grief, there's a man tied on it."

"I'm getting another craft, coming in fast from below."

"Visual. You won't believe this, sir, it's the Emperor's private hoverjet!"

"Who's piloting?"

"Even I can't tell from here. This thing'll only magnify so far. It's – fire, they're opening the shields! They'll capsize!"

"What do they think they're doing?"

**---**

"Steady, Alendar!" shouted the Doctor.

The hoverjet bucked and shook in the jet stream as the pilot fought to keep it under the balloon. Sode dangled from the rope where he had tied himself, turning blue with cold, kicking and struggling, screaming something into the tearing wind.

"What's wrong with him?" said Cerf, awed. "Doesn't he know we can't hear him?"

"I don't think he's talking to us," said the Doctor.

"Can't we just go a bit higher and get him off the rope ourselves?" asked Jamie.

"I'm afraid that wouldn't work," said the Doctor. "If the wind changed suddenly, which it does a lot of at this altitude, the balloon would tip us over upside down and we'd all be lost."

"Jamie," said Cerf, "try opening the shields halfway so he won't miss the hole. Get that, Alendar? Everyone hang on now." Everyone hung on and Jamie opened the shields wider. The wind hit the insides of the shield like a moving wall. Alendar wrestled the jet like a live thing and its frame shuddered under the strain of running a steady course. Jamie's eyes were watering.

Cerf raised his needler gun and addressed Sode again.

"On the count of three, when I pop the balloon, the force of the escaping air will throw you and what's left of your rope off in a random direction. Nothing could save you then. You have until three to cut yourself loose. We won't harm you." There was a thread of steel in his voice that Jamie hadn't noticed before. "One."

Sode twisted to look down at the Prince. Cerf met his eye levelly. "Two."

Sode stabbed at the rope, fell neatly between the two halves of the wind shield and landed in a blue shivering heap on the deck. Jamie pressed the shield button, and Alendar turned the hoverjet toward the ground.

**---**

"They got him!"

"Unbelievable. That's the best pilot I've ever seen. Outside of us, that is."

"There they go, heading back to the Palace."

Seven looked down at the screen controls. Her hand was trembling. "This day," she said, almost to herself, "whatever it is, is going to be important. Whatever it was that just happened, it was something big."

Forty-Two studied her expression in wonder. "They broke jurisdiction, sir," he said tentatively. "Should I--"

"No, leave it. It's not an extreme emergency."

"What would be an extreme emergency in your book?"

"You'll know it when you see it. Come on, back to the sensors," said Seven, and the Chip sank down toward the eastern horizon.

**---**

For a moment, Cerf kept his needler gun aimed at the traitor, but it was unnecessary. As Gamra and the Doctor applied the handcuffs, the Prince sat down on the trunk, knees only slightly shaky. "I would have done it," he muttered.

"Look at that," said the Doctor, shining his penlight into each of Sode's eyes in turn. "He's almost catatonic."

"Could it be wind chill?" said Gamra.

"Not likely," said the Doctor. "No, it's... almost as if he sustained a massive mental shock of some sort." He put the penlight away and sat down on one of the long metal benches.

Jamie, having reclaimed his dagger, sat down next to him. "So that's over then?" he said quietly. The shield was closed and the jet sank unsteadily through the heavy wind; the quiet was almost oppressive. "The planet's safe?"

"I don't know, Jamie," said the Doctor, looking worriedly at Sode. "I hope so, but I just don't know."

Jamie looked at Sode. The traitor was huddled in a corner, chained firmly to the guard rail, eyes empty, but speaking. Not quite whispering, but mumbling almost inaudibly, two words over and over.

"I'm coming. I'm coming."

-----


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**Chapter Eighteen**

The lack of wind was highly gratifying as they slid over the Emperor's grounds towards the hangar. Cerf, looking out the shield (and anywhere, in fact, but at the prisoner, the sight of whose face now sickened him), was surprised to observe almost no trace of the chaos that had ensued when Sode's little army broke out of the Labyrinth. Soldiers and civilians alike were lined up against the palace walls, not moving, barely breathing. They all seemed to be watching the hoverjet as it touched down.

"I don't like this," said the Doctor.

"You and me too," said Cerf grimly. "What are they waiting for?"

"They're like a bunch of robots someone's turned off," said Jamie.

"Let's hope it isn't like that," said the Doctor. "Robots aren't their own masters, and whatever can be turned off can generally be turned back on again. We have to get down to the TARDIS."

Gamra activated the ladder at the side of the hoverjet, and Alendar, who had reverted to his old self as soon as he was out of the pilot's seat, unhooked Sode's copper chain from the guard rail. The traitor had ceased muttering, but was still staring into space. As the chain moved he climbed stiffly to his feet, and followed the others meekly down the ladder.

"Now let's not make any sudden moves," said the Doctor, leading them toward the palace doors. "They don't seem to mind us going this way."

Hundreds of eyes followed them across the courtyard.

"What's happened to them?" said Cerf, looking around. "Oh no, there's Elfik." She was standing in a row of Phestans, eyes vacant. Of Kapik there was no sign.

"They're under some kind of telepathic control," said the Doctor.

"Sode?"

"No, he seems to be under it too. I was afraid of this."

Without warning, Sode stepped to one side, snapped the chains as easily as he had the bandages, and walked away. Cerf aimed his needler, but Jamie yelled "Look out!" and pulled him to one side just in time to dodge a blaster bolt. Sode walked steadily toward the palace doors, as though the whole matter were no longer his concern, and a line of people commenced to close in, moving slowly and stiffly. One of the people was Auburning.

"Come on, everybody, run!" yelled the Doctor, leading the way through the doors and into the great hall. "Jamie, where's the TARDIS?"

"It's down this way," said Jamie, heading for the stairs. "At least that's the way the guard was taking me."

"We can't go that way!" panted Alendar. "That leads to the dungeon. We'll be trapped!"

"Not if the TARDIS is down there," said the Doctor, following Jamie. Several Phestans burst into the hall, removing all other options, so Cerf and the Guards followed him.

They found themselves outside a cell in the dungeon. The police call box sat impassively inside. The Doctor dug into his pocket for the key. Then he remembered that he had given it to Victoria.

**---**

Discrete thoughts flicked over the ephemeral surface of an immense mind, formatting a new protocal of action.

_cannot escape / can escape / new data / anachronistic device / contained / restrain at once_

**---**

Several Phestans came down the steps, lurching from side to side, as if not in full control of their motor skills. The Doctor pounded on the door. "Victoria! It's us, open up!"

Victoria operated the door control and everyone rushed in just in time. The Doctor, pressing buttons, said, "There, the force field's up. We're safe... for the time being, at any rate."

"Doctor, what's happening?" said Victoria. "Kapik and Elfik went out to get some files they left behind, and they never came back."

Cerf recovered from the shocking fact of the giant space inside the police box and said, "What did you mean you were afraid of this?"

"Well," said the Doctor, "Elfik's sensor blip is clearly some sort of spacecraft, and I'm afraid they may be somewhat less than friendly." He looked at Victoria. "And that may also account for Elfik and Kapik."

Jamie shook his head and blinked.

"Jamie?" said the Doctor in concern. "Are you all right?"

"Oh, aye," said Jamie. "I just had a little headache before, but it's gone away now."

The Guards had been conferring, and Gamra stepped forward. "Highness," he said, "I must report that we also had headaches. They disappeared when we entered the Doctor's ship."

"So did mine!" said Victoria. "And Elfik and Kapik both got headaches when they went out of the TARDIS to get their papers."

"It has to be a telepathic beam of some kind," said the Doctor. "The TARDIS is protected against that sort of thing. Victoria, can I see the book?"

Victoria handed him _A Better Way_, and he leafed through it. Then he frowned and snapped it shut. "This is no use at all!" he said in consternation. "It ends right at the point in history when we are now. I do hate cliffhangers, don't you?" He ran a distracted hand through his hair. "Where's Volume Two?"

"I couldn't find it," said Victoria.

"Of course not," said the Doctor, pacing frantically up and down the control room. "It won't be published for another twenty-five years. You realize what this means, don't you: we're rewriting history from scratch."

-----


	20. Chapter Nineteen

**Chapter Nineteen**

The thoughts grew more frantic. _hidden (there is a shield) from my(the)self / impossible / possible / impossib(ility calcu)l(at)e / barrier / can't get through (blocked) / try harder_

**---**

The Doctor had spread the papers and readouts all over the floor, and the others were huddled around watching him. Suddenly there was a slight tremor, shaking the papers, and several console lights brightened and dimmed again.

"What was that?" said Victoria.

"Probably an increase in the beam," said the Doctor absently. "They've realized they can't get through on normal strength." He snorted. "Took them long enough. Well, they won't get through with that either."

Alendar was taping several papers together. Suddenly he stiffened and pointed to a line that seemed to be running at random among a lot of other lines. "Here, Doctor, trajectory."

The Doctor looked. "Yes, that's it! All right, add all these numbers to..." His voice trailed off.

"What is it?" said Jamie.

"Well, I just realized something," said the Doctor. "Now that we've got the trajectory we can compute exactly where the space ship is now, at this point. But what can we do about it? We daren't leave the TARDIS, especially now that they've upped the beam."

A voice sounded. "_Surrender_."

Everyone looked at the viewscreen. General Eckers Sode Sodos stood on the dungeon stairs, accompanied by several guards and a Phestan in a 'DragonSingers' T-shirt. Their faces were identically blank.

"_You cannot escape_," said the General in a lifeless monotone. "_Leave your device and expedite the Onemind's conquest_."

The Doctor opened the channel. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"_I am the Onemind. I travel from planet to planet in search of certain minerals_..." Sode -- or rather, the entity that spoke through Sode -- rattled off a long string of numbers and element codes. "_When I find them, I melt them down to nuggets and eject them into the sun_."

"Why do you do that?" said Cerf.

Sode looked modestly down and made little circles with his toe on the dungeon floor. "_They make such pretty solar flares. It's my one joy in life_."

"Why can't you melt down some other planet?" said Jamie.

"_What, and miss all this magnificent copper? Preposterous_."

"And I suppose if we turn the planet over to you we get to join the consciousness and survive the apocalypse?" said the Doctor sarcastically.

Sode's face twisted into a grimace or a grin -- there was no telling which. "_No. Whatever gave you that idea? You will but be oblivious to your own deaths_."

"Is he serious?" demanded Victoria.

"Hard to tell, isn't it?" The Doctor glared at the figure on the screen.

Cerf spoke up. "If you're just going to kill us anyway, what's the point of getting us under your power?"

"_Mental distress causes me... discomfort. Under my influence you can die painlessly. Easier all round_."

"Oh, that's fine, don't worry about us," muttered Jamie.

"_You will surrender now_."

"Never!" shouted Cerf and the Doctor in unison, surprising each other.

Sode pressed his palms together and the TARDIS shuddered again.

"Doctor," said Cerf through gritted teeth, "how strong is this beam? Are all of my people under it?"

"I wouldn't think so," said the Doctor. "Take too much power to spread such a strong beam across an entire planet. No, it's probably just concentrated on the immediate area."

"That's why the Onemind tried to make my people fight Krakor," said Cerf furiously. "It could retreat while we killed each other off, and then come back and sedate anyone who was left while it finished destroying our planet!"

"Horrible," agreed the Doctor. "Diabolical, but effective."

"Can't we move out of the way of the beam?" suggested Victoria.

The Doctor shook his head. "We can't risk taking off. If we take off we might land on Upsilon Andromeda." He began to pace rapidly around the console. "What to do, what to do..."

Tellisn said, "I think I may have a suggestion."

His voice was weak, but he was less pale and he was standing up. The Doctor looked delighted. "Tellisn! How are you doing then?"

"Much better, Doctor. This machine is remarkable."

"Thank you. You say you have a suggestion?"

"Yes." Tellisn looked at Cerf. "I can have Troposphera destroy the mothership." He held up a hand to stop Cerf's instant question. "Yes, the Chip is armed, but only for defense; you are now one of the very few people on or off this planet to know this. I hope you will make the information available to the Thane when this is over. Balance of power, you know."

Cerf decided not to say anything after all. He just nodded.

The Doctor looked at Tellisn measuringly. "How will you tell the people on the Chip what's going on? Satisfactory though it is, my ship doesn't have a subspace transmitter. Or even a radio, for that matter."

"My people are natural telepaths," said Tellisn.

"Your people'?" said Cerf.

"I am part of a special worldwide force that was founded hundreds of years ago. Don't worry, Highness, our telepathic powers are used solely for communication and we are dedicated to peace. I can speak to them even from this distance, if you turn off the telepathic blocks."

The TARDIS shuddered again, and there was a brief whining sound. Victoria spoke up. "But if we do, then that thing out there can get in here at us, isn't that right, Doctor?"

The Doctor nodded. "That could be a problem."

There was a moment's uneasy silence. Then Jamie spoke for them all. "Just let it try."

"Now, Jamie," said the Doctor, "you know this could be extremely dangerous."

"I would need about a minute," said Tellisn. "Two at most, depending on how strong the mental interference is."

"As I see it," said Cerf, "the problem is having someone able to turn the force field back on when Tellisn's done."

"All right," said the Doctor, clapping his hands together. "Gather round, everyone." He led them over to one of the console panels. "Watch this. Blue button, red button, all these switches, and the big knob here." He repeated the sequence. "That releases the telepathic circuit. Those controls need to be engaged as soon as Tellisn's finished."

**---**

The ship orbited high above the Phestan atmosphere. The sun side blazed and starlight glinted off the dark side. Its sharp angles reflected blood red.

The bow of the ship was turned down toward the planet, and a point on the forward spike shone white hot, focusing on a tiny patch of Vanussia. A thread of pure force, invisible and yet implacably potent, roped it to the surface.

The spike flared brighter, and the cord thickened.

-----


	21. Chapter Twenty

**Chapter Twenty**

Tellisn stood in the center of the control room, hands resting on the console.

"Everyone had better hold onto something," said the Doctor. "This could be rough." To Tellisn, he added, "Are you sure about this? As a natural telepath you could be the most severely affected."

"I am sure, Doctor. Whenever you're ready." Tellisn closed his eyes and faced the eastern wall. The air in the console room seemed to stop moving, and even the hum of the instruments quieted, as if in anticipation.

"All right." The Doctor looked around at the others, and his hands ran over the controls.

He pressed the final switch home, staggered, and yelled, clutching his head. Gamra and Alendar sagged against the walls. Victoria fell to her knees and moaned. Jamie almost collapsed, and ended up clinging to the hatstand. Cerf looked around in bewilderment. He could feel nothing.

Tellisn's knuckles went white on the edges of the console. He arched his back and screamed.

**---**

On the Chip, Seven's head snapped up.

**---**

"One... here at Palace..." Tellisn's voice was almost inaudible, but simply saying the words helped his concentration. His head rang with the message _Surrender_. Sweat ran down his face. "Extreme emergency. Under attack by..."

**---**

Seven's mouth moved with the words. Her hands entered coordinates into the targeting computer and Forty-Two, acting slowly as if entranced, armed the missiles.

**---**

The TARDIS was resisting. Blue lightning blazed around the cell. A soldier, touched by the lightning, fell soundlessly to the floor.

The blue fire roared in the glowing voids through which Sode's heart had once surveyed his strange world. He whispered, "Surrender."

**---**

"Fire." The word grated horribly, and Tellisn collapsed. Blue lightning played around his head. Cerf darted to the console and keyed in the sequence the Doctor had showed them.

**---**

Sode howled in fury and the dungeon filled with blue fire.

**---**

Above the atmosphere the beam, now concentrated solely on the TARDIS, became almost visible. Then five rays lanced from a point inside the atmosphere and coalesced at another point just inside the ship's hull. There was a slow, silent explosion, perfectly spherical in the vacuum.

The telepathic beam winked out.

**---**

Around the palace Phestans were sitting up and blinking in the sunlight, wondering what had happened. Untethered dragon floats bobbed in the breeze.

**---**

In the TARDIS, Jamie and Victoria helped the Doctor to his feet. "Doctor? Are you all right, Doctor?"

"Yes, yes, thank you," said the Doctor, mopping his head with his handkerchief. "And how about you?"

"We're fine," said Jamie.

"Speak for youself," said Victoria. "It was awful."

"Well, a' dinna say it wasn't," said Jamie.

"Of course it was," said Victoria. "But we're all right now, aren't we, Jamie?"

Jamie mimed exasperation. "That's what I said!"

The Doctor had moved over to the other side of the console, where the Guards, now somewhat recovered, had helped Tellisn into a chair. Cerf, having located a first-aid kit, was busy rebinding the telepath's arrow wound.

Jamie, seeing he wasn't needed, went outside. The Onemind's victims were unconscious where they had fallen, and Sode was sprawled half on the stairs and half on the floor, with his eyes closed. There was a strange smell in the room, like lightning.

Jamie prodded the nearest soldier with his foot and, recieving no response, poked his head back into the control room. "Well, it's gone, all right, whatever it was."

"Oh, splendid," said the Doctor.

Tellisn nodded weakly, looking up at the ceiling. "It is, isn't it," he said. "It's gone now." His eyes closed.

"There's some rubbish outside, Highness," said Jamie, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder. "D'you want to do anything with it?"

Cerf came out, followed by everyone who could stand. Victoria shrank away from the fallen Phestans. "Are they dead?"

"I don't think so," said Cerf, checking the pulse of the man in the T-shirt. "No, just knocked out."

"The whole business was probably hardest on Tellisn," said the Doctor.

"Will he be all right?" said Victoria.

The Doctor glanced back at the TARDIS and nodded. "I'm sure he will. Remember, he was trained for this sort of thing."

Gamra and Alendar, having located another giant padlock, three sets of handcuffs, and assorted lengths of chain, were having a quiet arguement over which items would be best applied to Sode. Cerf, seeing the dilemma, settled it by using everything. The others watched the operation in silence, and then Jamie whistled. "You're no takin' any chances, are you?"

Cerf surveyed his handiwork. "What do you bet he'll just break out again?"

"Shouldn't think so," said the Doctor. "That extra strength was probably just another effect of his possession by the Onemind."

There was a clatter from the stairs and Elfik and Kapik tumbled into the dungeon, chorusing, "What happened this time?"

"His Highness can tell ye," said Jamie. "What are you going to do now, Cerf?"

"Hmm," said Cerf. "First I'm going to lock Sode in one of these cells."

"Chains and all?" said Tellisn from the TARDIS doorway, and everyone started talking at once. The big Phestan was standing unsupported and looked much improved.

"Yes, chains and all," laughed Cerf when order had been restored. "After that I'm going to call the Thane and negotiate the independence of the Ten Thousand Islands. Then I'm going to have the space program stepped up. It's too bad about Sode. I mean Hron -- you know what I mean. He's going to be in deep water, especially after the Thane hears about what's gone down. It might have been kinder for the Onemind just to kill him."

"Does he not deserve whatever he gets?" asked Jamie.

"Oh, sure," said Cerf. "It's only that justice is such a difficult thing to pin down. If we can get rid of the threat he's created completely but without rancor, I'd say that's probably a good start. And after that..." He looked uncertainly at Tellisn.

"Continue your father's tradition," said Tellisn. "Rule as he would have done -- as he wanted to do. The people are to the Emperor what the Emperor is to the people." He walked towards the stairs and, without further ado, vanished into thin air.

"Sound advice," said the Doctor.

"He quoted my father again," said Cerf. Then he shook his head. "What about you? What are you going to do? Something that involves staying here, I hope?"

"Oh no, we really must be off," said the Doctor, patting the side of the TARDIS proudly. "Next stop, the Pleadies."

"Or wherever," said Jamie. Victoria giggled.

Cerf eyed the battered old police box. "Shall I have some men come and move your ship out of the dungeon?"

"Oh, I don't think that'll be necessary," said the Doctor.

-----


	22. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

The TARDIS materialized more quietly than usual within a little thicket of trees and bushy shrubs ringed by decorative stones. The dappled mix of sunlight and shadow under the iridescent foliage hid the time machine very effectively. After a moment, there was a rustling, and the Doctor's head stuck out of the bushes. There was a leaf in his hair. He looked around.

The thicket was part of the larger forest that bordered what was now a sunny courtyard surrounding the base of a tall hill. The rocky side of the hill was carved with dragons, and a stone gateway was set in its center. There was a building on the right, not quite extending into a lake, and the Doctor knew that on the other side of the building another TARDIS was waiting, disguised as a large rock.

A sound. Voices. The great door creaked open and the Doctor's head vanished into the shrubbery. A taller, older-looking man with flowing white hair strode by, his arms full of books of all sizes and colors, somehow radiating dignity despite his bare feet and the pale bluish-gray gi of the Vanussian martial arts. He walked across the court and disappeared around the building. There was a cry from the door: "Grandfather, wait for--" and a petite girl with short dark hair burst out of the darkness within, missed a step, overbalanced, and crashed to the tiles. The partial cause of her mishap, a collection of books to equal her grandfather's, scattered halfway across the small square.

She climbed to her feet, apparently unharmed, and started picking up books. Another man came out after her, tall and craggy and also clad in a gray gi, and offered to help her. The Doctor recognized Sarchas Allan.

"Thank you," said the girl, looking rather flustered, like a high school student whose favorite teacher has just seen her... well, drop a stack of books all over the floor. "I'm awfully sorry we're rushing away like this."

"He certainly seems to be in a hurry," said Sarchas, in the gravelly voice the Doctor remembered so well, "for a man who has all the time in the universe."

"Oh, he's like that, whenever he decides he has to do something," said the girl. The Doctor's eyebrows rose in indignation. "He would have left this morning, but he didn't want to miss the last class."

Sarchas handed her a stack of books. "He said he's taking you to Earth next, in the Galaxy."

In the thicket, the Doctor smiled. As he recalled, there had been more unplanned detours on that trip than there were light years between Koli and Sol. That other TARDIS wasn't going to see Earth for a long time.

"Have you ever been there?" continued Sarchas.

"No. But it sounds fascinating. I'm to be enrolled in an Earth school, and Grandfather says I ought to read all his Earth books on the way to prepare. He's got dozens of them, it's his favorite planet--"

An impatient voice floated around the building. "Susan! Susan, time's flying!"

"As well it might," she muttered. "Coming, Grandfather!" Thanking Sarchas for his help, she raced across the courtyard and around the corner. Sarchas stood looking after her for a moment, shaking his head in amusement. Then he turned and went back inside the hill to prepare for the next few hours of classes.

Susan had missed a book. It had landed under one of the bushes in the thicket, hidden by leaf and shadow, its title glinting gold where a spark of sunlight touched it. When he was sure the coast was clear, the Doctor picked it up.

Moments later, the thicket was empty.

**-----**

end


End file.
